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Speaker 1: Let's get to the numbers on tourism, shall we. The

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Speaker 1: government patting itself on the back yesterday praising itself over

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Speaker 1: the international visitors spending, saying it's on the rise, new

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Speaker 1: data showing it increased by almost ten percent on last year,

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Speaker 1: contributing twelve point twelve billion dollars to the economy. And

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Speaker 1: yes it is coming back, but boy is it's slow.

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Speaker 1: In real terms, we're still only at eighty six percent

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Speaker 1: of pre COVID spending and we've been stuck there since

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Speaker 1: at least March, according to numbers from the Minister's office.

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Speaker 1: Glyn Lewis is the Queenstown mayor. He's with me this morning. Glenn,

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Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning, Rian, Good to have you on

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Speaker 1: the show. What are you seeing are you seeing obviously

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Speaker 1: not back to pre well, well what are you seeing

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Speaker 1: in Queenstown?

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Speaker 2: So yeah, the numbers are good news. It's good to

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Speaker 2: see them coming up. But when we look at the

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Speaker 2: Queenstown context, when we're above pre COVID levels and visitation

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Speaker 2: and we had spend it around about eleven percent above

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Speaker 2: a year on year, it just tells me some parts

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Speaker 2: of New Zealand are doing it tough. When it comes

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Speaker 2: to tourism spend, So that's interesting.

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Speaker 1: So Queenstown is eleven percent on spend above pre above

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Speaker 1: pre COVID, and are on numbers.

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Speaker 2: Eleven percent above from last year to April April April,

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Speaker 2: and where I think we're I think about seventeen percent

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Speaker 2: above pre COVID. If you even look at our airport,

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Speaker 2: our trains, Tasman routes one hundred and forty percent above

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Speaker 2: pre COVID, we're about to hit We're just under a

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Speaker 2: million international visitors through our airport this year alone, and

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Speaker 2: I think pre COVID we're about six hundred thousand.

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Speaker 1: Well, so what's your what's your biggest problem tourism wise?

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Speaker 2: It's it's not a problem. It's going to get even

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Speaker 2: busier during the winter months. I think it just highlights

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Speaker 2: the the uneven nature of the spend across New Zealand,

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Speaker 2: and I think from my own personal point of view,

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Speaker 2: I think there's a little bit more effort to try

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Speaker 2: and collaborate more between different regions and see if we

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Speaker 2: spread the love, let's say, into the regions, because.

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Speaker 1: You've basically got people flying in to see you and

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Speaker 1: flying out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that usually happens especially in the winter when

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Speaker 2: the ski season starts, that white gold comes falling down.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, and look, there's some I believe there's a

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Speaker 2: huge opportunity to get those international visitors out into the

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Speaker 2: regions more. But yeah, I think that's probably a bit

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Speaker 2: more of a work on Glen.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate your perspective this morning. Thanks so much for being

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Speaker 1: with us. That's Glenn Lewis. He's the Queenstown mayor on

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Speaker 1: those new international tourist spend numbers out yesterday.

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Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live

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Speaker 2: to News Talks it be from five am weekdays, or

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