An excellent article by Nikki MacDonald on Tourism in NZ with investigation after investigation outlining what the problems are, and what the solutions could be.
But sadly no high level reset on the horizon. The reason is deep into the second page of the article where minister Peeni Henare says the tourism reset is happening, but it is industry driven and the Government’s role to support that.
While I applaud the many changes businesses are making, the industry leading is how we got to this problem. Do we say no to Cruise Ships? Do we say no to new airline flights? Do we say no to short stay bus tours that add nothing to regional economies? Do we require declaration of carbon status, environmental credentials? Do we actually limit the numbers at key spots, or just say we have a target. The answer seems to be no to all this.
Before we once again start to lose tourism’s social licence to operate, and continue down the road of degrading our environment even further. We need to properly fund DOC, to support small down infrastructure which is being overwhelmed by visitors, focus on the regions build local capacity. We need a plan – it is past time for our government to lead in this, not follow.
letter in The Press 6 June
The next day followed by another article on Regenerative Tourism – showing the positive elements emerging from businesses moving beyond sustainable to truly regenerative thinking. However it feels a bit like Country Calendar – showing the fantastic edges working for change, while the majority is still unaware of the extent of the problem or unwilling to do much about it .
A tourism industry driven reset is a cop out and will achieve nothing but green washing. Do we really think the cruise ship industry is going to voluntarily stop visiting the inner harbour of Milford Sounds to protect the environment? Or THL (Maui, Britz etc Campervans) are going to say, freedom camping is not sustainable, when they rely on selling this idea to visitors? When the tourism reset task force leader is the CEO of THL (Grant Webster) what do we expect. We have one opportunity locally to help shape what we’d like. The Tourism Draft Management Plans needs more local voices. CHCHNZ has spent $400,000 to contract a Canadian company to write this plan for us. They received less than 400 survey responses to base the plan on- about 3% of Banks Peninsula population. This is appalling.
I have proposed for a long time that we need to reset tourism to a ‘slow’ form – same as ‘regenerative’? This presupposes there is value in people en masse travelling around the world and whether the cost to the planet can be compensated for or offset – without green-washing! I imagine everyone reading this will have travelled extensively and can argue it is an enriching experience that brings understanding, appreciation and respect for the diverse environments and peoples of the world. This will only be so if it is authentic and engaging with the local landscape and people – which needs time and informed guides. A few thoughts on what slow/regenerative tourism looks like: new generation hi-tech, aero-foil sailing ships to move people and cargo around the planet; 2nd broadening the notion that there is nature and culture everywhere across the country – not just in current national parks, but all cities can be national park cities (with appropriate Māori names), and here the 1st urban great walk (CHCH360Trail) could have taken pressure off the struggling DoC tracks affected by extreme weather, and off the much more recent Te Ara Roa running short of accommodation. We should have been promoting and marketing the CHCH360Trail as the City’s hikoi and pilgrimage for decades (some who’ve done the whole thing say it is ‘better than the El Camino’ :-)). And instead of spending millions on branding companies for the city, why not the ‘City of Golden Winters’ – that celebrates our amazing flowering kowhai – starting about now, and the korimako and tui they will feed…. and so on. We (or others) tend to under-rate our city as a boring transit to QStown – we have got the full experience here; let’s tell our story and do it.