During the school holidays getting a park was difficult which was previously unheard of. The famous Lazy Graze restaurant is always full and on one occasion we had to share a table.
Tararua Mayor Tracey Collis said that the region was booming.
“Traffic numbers are up and Pukaha Mount Bruce is busy. The shops are enjoying good times with people having a sense of pride shopping locally,” she said.
“We also have new people moving into the district”.
Accommodation is also booming in Martinborough and Greytown.
Over the past month we’ve stayed at both the Martinborough Hotel and Greytown’s White Swan. The rooms are fabulous, the prices reasonable, the meals great and the restaurants full at both establishments.
The tourist centres in Taupo, Rotorua and Napier say they’re enjoying good times.
I’ve just returned from a fishing trip to Taupo and the town is humming.
Shops say they’re really busy and the Lake Taupo Motor Inn reports strong bookings.
Down south, the Mackenzie also has good tourist numbers with many campervans, inevitably helped by the cheap rates.
Fairlie’s Bakehouse has sold over 2000 pies in a day – that’s a lot of pies.
Statistics New Zealand tell me there are only 696 people living in Fairlie so logic would suggest most pies were sold to tourists. I can’t imagine the entire population consuming three pies each and every day.
Auckland Airport is one of the busiest in the world, yet we keep hearing of the crisis the NZ tourism industry is in.
I remain unconvinced.
I’m happy to concede that there will be areas and activities that are feeling the pinch but that isn’t a crisis.
One could even suggest it’s part of a natural evolutionary process; things change and progress and we must change with it.
My problem is the huge amount of money being thrown at the tourist industry. In my opinion, that’s dead money.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa have just released an Election 2020 Plan.
Their demands are excessive. Someone should tell them the days of protection and subsidies are over.
As I’ve mentioned, tourism’s fine in the Wairarapa and neighbouring areas as is the Mackenzie. So, what’s the problem?
It’s been blamed on the lack of international tourists. That’s not going to change.
With the covid crisis in Australia it’s unlikely that our largest visitor market is going to open anytime soon. The same can be said for the rest of the world.
We’ve developed a strategy for agriculture going forward. Why can’t we take a long hard look at the tourist industry?
My issue is that tourism relies on both open borders and discretionary dollars, and the borders are unlikely to be open in the foreseeable future.
Meaning, the financial crisis as a result of covid-19 is going to be greater than that of the Global Financial Crisis, and discretionary dollars will be scarce.
That begs the question: does the NZ tourism industry as we know it have a future?
I question that it does.
Looking at the tourism spend last year, international tourists spent $17.2 billion according to Statistics NZ while domestic tourists spent $23.7bn.
I question the figures from two perspectives.
The first is that there’s a lot of estimation going on.
The second is that any travel I do for whatever reason is classed as domestic tourism dollars. For example, I travel to a family funeral, I’m a domestic tourist.
I’ll accept that if I go to Greytown, Martinborough or Taupo for pleasure then that’s a legitimate tourism spend but I’d argue going to a family funeral isn’t.
My position is that farming has changed massively since the 1980s. The climate changed and we adapted.
Now is the time for tourism to change as well.
It also seems to me that the industry demands endless support and handouts.
Tourism, like everyone, else had the benefit of the Government’s wage subsidy scheme. In addition to that generosity, they were awarded an extra $200 million in this year’s budget.
Then late last month the Government gave them an additional $311m to ‘protect key businesses.’ That amount was criticised by the tourism industry.
I would respectfully suggest that if that half billion dollars was invested in AgResearch the entire country would see a tangible benefit in the short to medium term.
Invested in tourism they won’t.
Tourism has had a privileged place at the table since the start of the Key government. They’re obviously used to it.
As I’ve said, it needs open borders and discretionary dollars.
It is a low-wage industry that relies to an extent on cheap foreign labour. It needs far greater long-term economic, social and environmental analysis before any more taxpayer dollars are chucked in its direction.
