SOS from glacier zone
Calls for Government help to overcome crisis as tourism mecca fights for survival
New Zealand’s glacier region is on tenterhooks amid dire forecasts that more than 80 per cent of pre-Covid jobs and two-thirds of businesses could vanish within months, prompting calls for a multimilliondollar bailout.
Hundreds of residents have already lost jobs and have moved away since the borders closed to tourists. A new report indicates how quickly the social and economic crisis is worsening.
In a letter to Tourism Minister Stuart Nash today, the heads of Development West Coast (DWC) and industry body Glacier Tourism Group say the region’s ‘‘usually vibrant communities’’ are fighting for survival.
They say the glaciers are the drawcard for over a fifth of New Zealand’s tourists in normal times, contributing $120 million a year to the economy. Projections in the DWC report, based on Treasury forecasts and a survey of businesses, say the region’s income will tumble 80 per cent this year and fall again next year.
The region covers a 100-kilometre stretch of South Westland and includes the township of Franz Josef plus Fox Glacier and Lake Moeraki to the south, and O¯ ka¯ rito and Whataroa to the north.
From the start of the Covid crisis in March last year to September this year, the glacier region is forecast to lose 860 out of 1028 jobs (84 per cent), 117 of its 174 businesses (67 per cent), and 358 of its 1170 residents (31 per cent). The letter says the region’s social and economic fabric needs help to survive so it can ‘‘contribute to the national economy once again once it [tourism] rebounds’’.
With a four-year loss of $382m based on ‘‘the current path’’, government investment of $35m ‘‘to support and progress opportunities’’ would significantly lessen the impact of the losses, it says. The suggested $35m includes $12m in further wage subsidies, $280,000 in economic crisis and mental health support, and $20m in infrastructure projects such as a walkway and cycleway linking Oka¯ ¯ rito to Fox Glacier.
Logan Skinner, owner of Glacier Country Campervan Park and Terrace Motel, told The Press he had just lost the last of his 15 staff.
‘‘It is a dire situation for us. People are leaving and you can’t blame them if they can get work with more hours elsewhere.’’ Skinner said.
Sixty-eight Fox Glacier and Franz Josef business owners surveyed said they would have to close within six months if they did not get government support.
Dale Burrows, who runs Franz Josef Wilderness Tours, said it had lost 85-90 per cent of the business but had survived by getting out of its commercial lease and cutting 80 per cent of costs. Five of their eight staff had gone but they had managed to keep the other three thanks to a mayoral relief fund and were determined to survive, he said. More New Zealanders were taking the company’s walking, kayaking or fishing tours but in ‘‘very limited numbers’’.