Lou Sanson proposes charges for Great Walks

If they doubled the accommodation charges and put in a 60% discount for those who are FMC affiliated and have an annual hut pass it wouldn't be too bad. Some overseas people here for a longer time / doing multiple Great Walks might find it worthwhile jumping through the hoops to get the discount as well, I wouldn't have a problem with that. At present they're discounting 10% for those with FMC affiliation and an annual hut pass, so it wouldn't be hard to implement the above, much easier than finding a way to distinguish residents from non residents. As long as they keep the free for children!

FROM TIA: Massive tourism GST increase must be reinvested Tourism Industry Aotearoa is calling on the Government to reinvest some of the massive tax windfall it has received from the tourism boom to ensure the long-term sustainability of the industry. The annual Tourism Satellite Account, the official measure of the value of the visitor economy, was released today. It shows the Government’s collection of GST from international visitors has increased to $1.1 billion, a 20.4% increase on the previous year. When GST paid by domestic travellers is included, the total GST take from annual tourism spending has risen to $2.8 billion. TIA Chief Executive Chris Roberts says the figures debunk the myth that visitors are not paying their way. “International visitors spent $14.5 billion in the year to March, with $1.15 billion of that going directly to the Government in GST. Those same visitors also generated other income for the Government, including the new border clearance levy, petrol tax, the income taxes paid by the 188,000 people directly employed in tourism, and the company taxes paid by the thousands of businesses servicing visitors. Our biggest tourism business, Air New Zealand, paid the Government $460m in taxes and dividends this year,” Mr Roberts says. “The Government does invest to attract visitors to New Zealand, through Tourism New Zealand. It also funds some of the facilities used by visitors, primarily through the Department of Conservation and the new $3m a year Tourism Facilities Fund. “But no matter how you calculate it, the Government’s income from international visitors is many, many times greater than the costs incurred in attracting and looking after them. “Nobody is making more money from the tourism boom than Bill English and Treasury.” Mr Roberts says the Government needs to reinvest some of its windfall profit to ensure ongoing success. “With tourism growth set to continue, the Government needs to play its part in providing the infrastructure to support that growth. The private sector is doing its bit, with hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on upgraded and new accommodation, attractions and activities. “However, some regions with small populations, along with a few tourism hot-spots, face major challenges and capital constraints. They need more of a helping hand from Government.” “The Facilities Fund is only just scratching the surface. It could be significantly expanded to deliver real long-term benefits for the regions of New Zealand and this country’s overall economic prosperity. “We need to invest now to ensure future success.” http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1610/S00827/massive-tourism-gst-increase-must-be-reinvested.htm

"At present they're discounting 10% for those with FMC affiliation" Given the 10% discount isn't available when booking online, is it even possible to get the hut pass discount with these Great Walks that sell out within hours of bookings opening?

As a generalisation the great walks are the commercial arm of DOC and to a large part the tourism industry. It makes sense to make them turn a profit. They may loose a few hikers that way but is that a bad thing? Now the 2 questions are What happens to the tier 2 tracks that just got a whole lot busier ie Greenstone Dart etc What happens to those that are not doing the complete track? When I was at school we did a trip over Emily Saddle which started by 2km along the Routburn then turn left up and over into the Fraser valley. There is a nice cave to sleep in there. If Routburn becomes chargeable would I have to pay for that first 2km

Historically Great Walks weren't really about DOC commercialism so much as providing a top tier of management for tracks that were already highly popular. They were as much to mitigate damage to the surrounding environment as to provide a higher level experience. That focus has gradually changed since international tourism's kicked up a gear, plus on top of that companies like Air New Zealand have been promoting the Great Walks to death. The Pike29 track is setting a new precedent, because its creation is not to mitigate damage in a region that's suffering from heavy tourism, but to draw *new* tourism to the region. Great Walks have gone from a management exercise to something that's highly branded. Regions are now fighting to get them, not because there's any special conservation value but because the branding attracts tourism and central government spending to that area. So much for DOC fostering recreation but only allowing for tourism.

I really don't think charging for access is the answer, the great walks are expensive enough in main season. Also it would be a nightmare to implement and costly. The GWs are popular because they are extensively advertised, however slapping $100 fee on would make a difference, both to local and foreign visitors, the latter who spending their money NZ and could easily go elsewhere. I've walked and mountain biked extensively in UK & Europe and never experienced any access charges. Charging foreign visitors more would also be unpopular to foreign visitors. Sure our taxes support DOC costs, but foreign visitors also pay GST. Charging foreigners more is really 3rd world type practices. A better idea and much easier to implement would be a smaller departure tax on all flights, it would raise more, less costly to implement, be barely noticeable on international flights, and is a more common practice.

Just exploring the idea, though, why should a departure tax go to DoC and not, for example, to local councils needing to improve their tourism infrastructure? How about throwing some of it at the central government fund for improving and maintaining roads that mostly tourists want to drive on? I think that's part of the potential issue with the likes of conservation taxes on arrivals or departures. As soon as it's being done, everyone's going to want dibs on it for their own pet project which can be remotely connected with international visitors. Similarly, why do we fund stuff like health and education centrally? Why not raise the user-pays costs and cut down public funding? I think the fundamental issue is that the conservation estate simply isn't being valued with the same priority as stuff like health and education and roads, despite the benefits it produces. New Zealand's people are making massive amounts of money from tourism, and that's leveraging hugely off the conservation estate. We just don't want to actually pay for it ourselves because many people don't directly experience the benefits, and so don't see why they should pay slightly higher tax or authorise more borrowing or have the opportunity to vote in fewer flag referendums. Therefore DOC's looking for commercial sponsorship for fluffy birds which skews the public funding towards the most marketable aspects of conservation. The rest of us are scrapping around the edges trying to propose ways to extract even more cash from visitors. Is a departure tax or some other fee collection system actually going to bring more money into New Zealand? Or will people just spend it where they're told they have to (departure tax, entry fees, inflated hut fees, whatever), and have less left over to spend on other stuff? What's as likely to happen is that visitors will spend their money where we tell them they have to spend it, but simply have less remaining to spend on other stuff. Then we'll also have a more convoluted funding system for the conservation estate.

""At present they're discounting 10% for those with FMC affiliation" Given the 10% discount isn't available when booking online, is it even possible to get the hut pass discount with these Great Walks that sell out within hours of bookings opening?" So that's their cunning plan! Talk about tripling the hut prices, only double them, appease the locals by offering a big locals discount but make it impossible to access that discount without ending up at the back of the queue and missing out when trying to book anytime it's busy. (Which is basically all the time). I think I've only ever stayed in a Great Walks Hut once in the Great Walks Season.

Visited 540 huts and never been in a single Great Walk Hut!