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Speaker 1: So today the government has done exactly the thing that

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Speaker 1: the tourism industry was hoping that they wouldn't do. And

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Speaker 1: they've increased the visitor levy, which is the amount that

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Speaker 1: tourists pay to come here, and it's going from thirty

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Speaker 1: five bucks to one hundred bucks, which is the high

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Speaker 1: end of what they were considering. I mean, the government

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Speaker 1: could have gone fifty bucks, could have gone seventy bucks.

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Speaker 1: In fact, they could have just have left it at

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Speaker 1: thirty five bucks if they wanted to, but they went

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Speaker 1: full noise to one HUNDI Now, in principle, I'm on

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Speaker 1: board with this. I've long thought and it's not you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm not alone in thinking this. I thing a lot

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Speaker 1: of us think this that tourists need to pay a

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Speaker 1: little bit more for the stuff that they're using here,

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Speaker 1: because if they're not paying more for it, we're paying

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Speaker 1: for it for them, right, we're subsidizing them. I mean,

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Speaker 1: how long have we talked about those poor punters who

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Speaker 1: live in Queenstown who have to pay for the roads

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Speaker 1: that the tourists jam up. They pay for the water

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Speaker 1: infrastructure that tourism gets to use. So tourists have a

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Speaker 1: nice time. They pay for the public toilets that the

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Speaker 1: tourists use. The list goes on right, and it's not

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Speaker 1: fair on ratepayers in Queenstown and frankly anywhere else in

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Speaker 1: this kind where tourists like to go, who are essentially

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Speaker 1: subsidizing an industry. But while I'm on board with this

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Speaker 1: in principle, I really think the timing is massively often

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Speaker 1: this is the wrong time to be doing this. For

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Speaker 1: some reason, tourists are not coming back to New Zealand

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Speaker 1: like we thought that they would five years on from

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Speaker 1: COVID and I'm counting it from COVID really starting back

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Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, five years on, our tourism industry numbers

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Speaker 1: are only back to about eighty percent, So where we

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Speaker 1: used to have five, we've only got four. We do

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Speaker 1: not know when they're going to get back to one

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Speaker 1: hundred percent. We can't say Australia knows, but they're going

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Speaker 1: to be there in three months time. But for some

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Speaker 1: reason we're lagging. It appears our attractiveness as a tourism

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Speaker 1: destination has deteriorated, and it's perplexing even the experts can't

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Speaker 1: quite put their finger on why people don't want to

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Speaker 1: come to New Zealand quite in the same numbers. And

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Speaker 1: part of the problem is China is not flying like

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Speaker 1: it used to. And the other problem will likely be

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Speaker 1: that this is not in the future at least, that

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Speaker 1: this is not the only cost that the government has

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Speaker 1: lumped on tourists. I mean it just last month it

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Speaker 1: increased the cost of tourists getting a visa to come here.

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Speaker 1: So now you're talking about people in places like China,

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Speaker 1: if they were to bring a family of five costing

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Speaker 1: two two hundred dollars just for the paperwork before they

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Speaker 1: even get here, before they even jump on the plane,

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Speaker 1: and they've already shelled out twy two hundred dollars. I

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Speaker 1: don't think making New Zealand more expensive right now while

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Speaker 1: we're struggling to recover is a smart idea, especially because

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Speaker 1: we really need to recover. We are in our third

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Speaker 1: recession in two years. We need the money. Frankly, this

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Speaker 1: feels like a short sighted money grab by the government.

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Speaker 1: They're trying to balance the government's box and it's short

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Speaker 1: sighted because it's going to, yes, today, make the government's

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Speaker 1: box look better, but it's not going to bring in

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Speaker 1: the tourists tomorrow, and that hurts us all in the end,

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Speaker 1: so yes on principle, but timing is way off. For

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Speaker 1: more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news

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