Hoteliers plead for bed tax plan to go

A bed tax proposal should be immediately and permanently abandoned, Queenstown and Wa¯ naka hoteliers say.

‘‘It is almost beyond belief that bed tax is being worked on while we all fight for recovery from the worst trading conditions in living memory,’’ Hotel Council Aotearoa strategic director James Doolan said.

He told Queenstown Lakes District councillors to shelve ‘‘the boom times bed tax experiment’’ at a hearing yesterday.

Queenstown hotel occupancy rates had plummeted from preCovid rates of 79 per cent to 33 per cent by March this year, according to Colliers International.

In 2019 the council held a referendum that showed 81 per cent of voters supported a proposed 5 per cent bed tax or visitor levy to fund the town’s infrastructure costs.

It was put on hold when Covid19 hit New Zealand.

However, there were ongoing discussions between mayor Jim Boult and Tourism Minister Stuart Nash. The plan needs central government backing to proceed.

Most recently Nash said he was looking at the issue nationally, but he signalled it might be through targeted local authority rates.

‘‘We [the Government] won’t be introducing a bed tax ourselves,’’ Nash said.

The council has included the bed tax in its draft 10-Year Plan.

The council seeks to introduce the levy from mid-2024 and estimates it would recover $162.8 million over the next seven years. It would be used primarily to fund the capital expenditure attributable to visitors, the plan says.

Doolan said hoteliers were astounded the council was pressing ahead with the plan.

The organisation, which represents 140 hotels, wanted to collaborate with council on finding a fair, robust and nationally-endorsed funding model for the tourism economy, he said.