Should NZ's Great Walks be privately-run?

I hope it never happens but I think we have to accept that the isea has to be looked at. The comments I made above really were to create thought not express an opinion. Even with tourists we dont have the numbers visiting our parks to generate full revenue unless the price gets set at a point that people wont pay. There is still resistance to the 5 and 15 dollar fees for huts often from long term trampers that take the view they helped build those huts. Frequently that is true but doesnt take the maintenance of the huts into consideration. Doc should be looking at expanding opportunities for tourists. Why do they all go to Tongarero? Because the guide books tell them to. Can an alternative trail through similar country be created to spread the load? These tracks would need to be mostly invisible to each other which would be difficult. Our parks are quite small and often have limited options on where a track can go so just saying build more tracks wont always work

A few weeks back I paid a simple $5/day Canadian to enter Jasper and Banff National Parks by road. No question of what I was doing, or how many facilities I was intending to use. Just a fixed cost per day. Simple, effective and quite painless. I argue for a similar system based on entry to NZ, implemented as an airport arrivals tax. The vast majority of visitors arriving in this country will either enjoy or use the Conservation Estate in some manner, even if only from the window of a car. The best taxes are small and universal. That way it's harder to game them, and they tend to cause fewer unintended consequences. This sort of visitor fee is extremely common overseas and universally accepted as a necessary means of funding. The only thing holding NZ back for so long has been this government's pathological inability to implement new taxes, even when the need is blindingly obvious. Separately there is the question of this govt's chronic underfunding of DoC. There is no question that resident taxpayers in NZ are not shouldering enough of the costs either. DoC funding needs to be doubled at a minimum; alongside the extra revenue stream from an Arrivals Tax. Ultimately DoC manages our 'commons' estate, critical to our environmental, economic and spiritual well-being as communities and a nation. I strenuously resist ANY slide towards yet more 'privatisation' in whatever form it takes. Sure tendering out services looks harmless enough at first, but very quickly it becomes entrenched as a 'commercial right' as the service providers gradually exert more and more influence to protect their income.

tourists don't come to NZ for the nightlife. they are here for the scenery, the parks and outdoor recreation..... they are all benefiting from seeing our parks, they should all pay something directly towards the maintenance of those parks... they want to see our native birds, then they should pay so we have native birds for them to see

More : http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/87912631/Editorial-Yes-to-a-tourist-tax

And more. http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/87920625/tramping-group-fights-plans-to-charge-tourists-for-using-great-walks Nothing really new but this topic is being hammered by media in recent weeks, almost as if there's someone out there trying to push an agenda. Probably the tourism industry, or the government's seeding it in order to watch the reactions.

FMC posted this on their facebook group After the recent Herald articles revealing that the Great Walks made a loss, and the tourism industry call to privatise them. We thought we would investigate. DOC provided further information under the OIA as per the link below. Some thoughts below, and we're interested in yours: - The numbers don't include any revenue received from concessionaires operating private huts (they need the track right!). - DOC doesn't seem to even know how many people using private huts are using the Great Walks. - The numbers don't include any revenue recieved by private businesses benefitting from the Great Walks, including shuttle companies. - Depreciation is a large component of the operational expense, the depreciation is much greater because of the ever "improving" track standards, which aren't wanted by anyone except those using their diggers/power barrows to maintain them. - Capital Charges are an even bigger part of the overall expense. These are a red herring as public capital is applied for benefits not economic return. There is no attempt to measure the public benefits of this expenditure. Our conclusion, what a bunch of bollocks. Hands off the Great Walks tourism industry, and no more Great Gravel Roads! http://www.fmc.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Great-Walk-OIA.pdf photo: Kevin Hughes - Peninsula Tramping Club - "Routeburn".

More on tourism numbers via RNZ: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/322424/tourist-numbers-at-'tipping-point'-on-nz-hikes

Just had a look at the figures, look like the Great Walks are making a profit of over 1.5 million every year once capital charges are removed.

DOC wouldn be pouring the resources it is into Great walks if it wasnt making a profit. Ultimate hikes pay a lot of money to DOC on the routeburn and Milford tracks and then theres all the concessions from guided day walkers and shuttle buses...

Its all the National way. Thou must make a profit but show it as a loss so thou can make a bigger profit next year That the "English financial system/farce)