No more government cash on the table to save struggling tourism businesses

Business

Govt signals plans to charge overseas tourists and visitors to natural hotspots more, but won't dish out more money to keep struggling tourism businesses afloat

19th Mar 21, 9:50am by Jenée Tibshraeny

Tourism Minister Stuart Nash is visiting Queenstown, bearing no gifts for struggling tourism businesses.

Rather, he has delivered a message, regions overly-reliant on tourism need to diversify, “because we don’t want to be in this situation again”.

He said the country also needs to adopt a more sustainable model of tourism once borders reopen.

In essence, overseas tourists will have to pay more to come to New Zealand, as will visitors to naturally significant tourism spots.

Nash said, “I would like to see changes in pricing strategies across our public assets, so that they become financially self-sustaining.

“I would like this to include a closer look at existing local levies, changes to the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy.

“I will be working closely with the Minister of Conservation on her approach to pricing for public conservation lands and waters.”

Nash said he would also look at changes to the “freedom camping regime”.

As for the here and now, he said: “Further support for tourism in 2021 requires a more structural approach for those who need it most.

“I am considering potential next steps till borders re-open, such as making it easier to hibernate firms and to start up again; help to diversify regional economies over-reliant on international tourism; and deployment of tourism workers to other sectors.”

Nash said the focus would be areas most affected by COVID-19, including South Westland, Queenstown Lakes, Fiordland, MacKenzie District-Aoraki Mt Cook and Kaikoura.

He recognised Auckland had taken a hit from the lack of international tourists, but said this wasn’t severe enough to cripple the Auckland economy.

The Government last year allocated $400 million towards helping the tourism sector. However it was criticised for cherry-picking businesses to receive support.

Nash said he wanted the tourism sector to be involved in the transition.

“This could involve an Industry Transformation Plan where tourism operators join government agencies, workers’ groups, and iwi to improve the sustainability of the sector,” he said.

“I remain committed to my four key principles for transforming the tourism sector: Brand New Zealand must be protected; we cannot return to business as usual; the full cost of tourism must be priced into the visitor experience; and the Government intends to work in partnership with the sector to achieve change.”

See Nash’s speech to the Otago University Tourism Policy School conference in Queenstown here.

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106 Comments

by lowercase capitalist | 19th Mar 21, 10:08am 1616101710

Good. A year is more than enough time to prepare for sink or swim.

by denature | 19th Mar 21, 10:33am 1616103199

I don't understand your point. Are you saying a year of financial hardship and desperation is enough to prepare for the offer of no help at all?

by JohnTrz | 19th Mar 21, 10:43am 1616103801

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_destruction

by denature | 19th Mar 21, 10:53am 1616104424

I guess the governments massive intervention in our lives is very much in the vein of Marxism.

by Zack Brando | 19th Mar 21, 12:28pm 1616110128

Perhaps NZ's best days are ahead of us.. I doubt it though. I think NZ is heading into an absolute Shite-Storm.

- Social Decay
- Economic Decay
- Visionless Leaders
- Exploding Meth Use
- Obscene Homelessness
- Inept Bureaucracy
- Denialist Media
- etc

Perhaps nature itself will convulse at what NZ is becoming. I sound pessimistic I know, though perhaps our sheltered leaders are just the last to see it.. the last to know?

What do you guys think?

by Belle | 19th Mar 21, 12:29pm 1616110140

I am sure your list could be added to. There is the rich that get richer, the poor that get poorer. The reliance on government rather than self.

by denature | 19th Mar 21, 1:07pm 1616112437

I think you make fair points.
We have done real destruction to society with the pointless lockdowns. One year on and there is still no real world evidence that they do anything but damage society.
The border closures had some value while we got our health system in order, or we could have closed over the winter when covid is far worse and re-opened for summer.
Covid is said to have cost NZ 58.1 billion.
I think people forget what a massively large number 58.1 billion is.
Let's be pessimistic and say we would have had as bad a death rate per capita as Czechia, currently worst in the world. That would have been about 11500 deaths. That means we have spent just over 5 million per predominantly old, already sick, life saved. That's a huge price for typically, 3 to 6 months more life.
The average New Zealander earns about 2.4 million in their life. Lets be generous and add the median house price onto that and we get nearly 3.2 million. So if you work from 18-65 earn the median income every one of those years and own the median house and sell it you will still not make enough to pay for one of these saved lives. By a significant amount as well (36%). How can that be a rational response?
According to the news hub leaders debate before the election, there are around 250 000 houses in poverty in New Zealand and 208 000 kids live in poverty. For 58.1 billion you could give all of those households 230k. That's a colossal amount if you are struggling to make ends meet.
With 58.1 billion we could give everyone of those children in poverty, 200 a week in fresh food for nearly 27 years.
From the same debate (the one with Paddy Gower): Lung cancer kills 1600 per year in NZ (30 per week) and Keytruda is not funded for lung cancer (50 million per year). We could fund Keytruda for 1162 years with 58 100 000 000. Would that save 11500 lives. Or more? Or less?
Who knows because the fear brigade don't do any cost benefits.
Instead what did we do with our 58.1 billion? We cowered in fear over something that does very little out of the ordinary to the overwhelming majority of us.
There is no kindness there. Just fear porn on overdrive.
In the US the top 20% increased their wealth, the bottom 80% saw their wealth sink during 2020. In New Zealand house prices exploded last year....something that unequivocally favours the well off. School closures and working from home? How do you think that goes for people in poverty?
Inequality is a constant presence in societal breakdown.
With responses like this it's very difficult to see much hope for the future.

by ham n eggs | 19th Mar 21, 1:49pm 1616114994

and theorys abound that Covid was rigged to do exactly that ...
scare the masses into consuming far less of available resources while calmly "being kind" in their new stifled ever poorer lifestyles...
fear is a great manipulator
after all, anyone who was looking could see that globally we were heading into an economic sh%Tstorm before covid...

by Belle | 19th Mar 21, 2:51pm 1616118691

What a great post Denature.

by denature | 19th Mar 21, 3:55pm 1616122536

Thank you Belle you are very kind.

by andreas_od | 19th Mar 21, 10:58pm 1616147906

Agree, your post is outstanding. Just a hint, JA has a page on LinkedIn :)

by fat pat | 19th Mar 21, 9:17pm 1616141857

What a great post Denature. Yeah I second that! Although I think the futility, and damage to NZ is far greater than even denature describes. The meta analysis of the randomised controlled trials for ivermectin show an average reduction in death for mild moderate and severe hospitalised covid cases of 83%. It's quite extraordinary the degree to which this scientific information is being suppressed. https://youtu.be/HXY86q3XAGI Had NZ implemented a pragmatic national campaign of improving health weight loss and zinc supplementation, vitamin D supplementation 2000 to 3000 IU per day, ivermectin for at risk people then we could have easily opened the country last August or September. We would have had relatively few deaths and a functional tourism industry. What we've got instead is an unnecessarily terrified population. We've spent the wealth of the nation and mortgaged our futures for nothing.

by streetwise | 20th Mar 21, 10:27pm 1616232454

I would like to debunk Denature's argument: his/her premises are all unsubstantiated and plucked out of thin air. The very word 'denature' implies the wish to do what is not natural; or perhaps that he/she wishes to side with those who prefer to carry on with the destruction of the world through pollution instead of returning the world to its natural state.
More seriously, his/her ideas are bordering on those of Fascism...the sacrificing of the old and infirm to the unproven benefit of the rest of the population. Many of those old and infirm served, even by just being the wife of a soldier like my 97 year-old mother, in WW2 to rid the world of Fascism.
A more charitable alternative interpretation is that Denature is a 'plant' by the editorial board to stir up a torrent of controversy.

by fat pat | 20th Mar 21, 11:41pm 1616236910

Denature is also a scientific term applied to proteins. That could imply that he or she is a scientist. That would be my guess given the logical reasoning of his/her arguments.

by denature | 21st Mar 21, 9:16am 1616271393

You are correct fat Pat, I take it from the name for the process of protein breakdown.

by denature | 21st Mar 21, 9:14am 1616271299

You didn't really debunk anything though did you?
How did you debunk anything I wrote?
Classic comeback the fascism one. It's so boring. And doesn't require you to really have any knowledge or hold a position. Just say "he's a fascist" and shut me up that way.
If you set out to debunk someone than maybe you should provide some actual evidence to debunk. Rather than offering....well nothing really. A bunch of tired, one dimensional thinking, regurgitated from the msm.
No one, least of all me is proposing we sacrifice anyone. I did not say that anywhere. So maybe you should stick to what a person is actually saying before you "debunk" them. We protect the elderly while the rest of us get on with things, like funding the health system with our taxes. Like plan b, and the great Barrington declaration have suggested and what many suggested from the start. Including myself.
We should have real conversations about what we are doing especially when it involves handing massive powers to government with no debate. There isn't even a political opposition to this madness. 58 billion is borrowed from the young to keep largely the old and already sick alive a few months or more longer. That is what this is. To pretend otherwise is disingenuous. And to not, at least debate it, is very dangerous indeed.
This has nothing to do with what the old did in the war. How is that in anyway relevant to this public health issue? This is to do with the fact there is zero discussion about whether policies such as lockdown are effective (they are not) and whether it is moral to take money from children (who we have a moral obligation to protect) and transfer it to elderly many of whom will die soon anyway because they are old and already sick and that is what old and already sick people do. They die. That's not fascism. That is biology.
These are the facts and they are supported in the data.
This has nothing to do with facism. This is about what a society does with its precious and finite resources.
Maybe you should run along and let the adults have a discussion.
Oh and perhaps learn what debunk means.

by Yvil | 19th Mar 21, 3:20pm 1616120427

Great post Denature, wonderful and so refreshing to read a post that is original and well thought through, I'm quickly becoming a fan of your posts

by denature | 19th Mar 21, 4:36pm 1616124974

Thanks Yvil I have enjoyed many of your posts in the past.
The last year has been a very frustrating year for anyone who actually does follow science and doesn't just say "shucks it must be right because Jacinda / Ashley / Michael Baker / Siouxsie said so". There is a real scientific debate about all of this nonsense. It is just completely supressed in the media.
I think it is fair to say that a massive misunderstanding of the deficiencies in modelling have led us to down a very dark alley.
That and the NZ medias seeming belief that their job is to get us to comply. What happened to the fourth estate? I generated most of those figures myself, why is there no one in the media making these points? Or better ones?
And the fact that fear sells played a role as well. Although that's hardly new.
So much of what has been said in the last year makes patently no sense, let alone some of the laughable stuff that has appeared in scientific literature. The head of the CDC waves a mask around in front of congress and says "this mask will protect you more than any vaccine". That is just....outrageous! And no one seems to bat an eye!
It makes me feel like my head will explode.
But an over reliance on modelling has been the biggest failure. The crappy modelling started the fear, took us into lockdowns, kept us there and then they use the same crappy modelling to "prove" that lockdowns work. When in the real world we see no efficacy of lockdowns at all. Or masks. Or social distancing.
They treat us like we are Homo epidemiologicus. Like we are bouncing dots on a computer screen and we push this button and look everyone keeps 2 metres apart and look at the R0 fall..... How the hell does anyone know what two metres is? All the time? In every action? Throughout society? They are modelling something that does not exist.....why would anyone be surprised that the results are so crap?
All the modelling predictions were shown to be hundreds or thousands of percent wrong, and the media keeps asking for more. People like Michael Baker who cry in relief when we go into lockdown, they are just bizzare. They are completely disconnected from the life of the average person. He should lose his job for the fear he has promulgated with his rubbish models.
"Tens of thousands of New Zealanders will die", my ass.
Imperial College ran their awful model on Sweden last year. By June (or July I forget) they predicted, best case scenario with full lockdowns and masking and all the other unproven nonsense, Sweden would have 35k dead. Worst case scenario if they did nothing they would have 105k dead. By June or July Sweden had 7k dead. Their conservative position was 500% wrong.
Who in their everyday life gets to be 500% wrong? A chef cooks pasta. It takes 10 minutes. If she is 500% wrong the pasta is cooked for 2 minutes or 50 minutes. Either way it's completely ruined. And she will lose her job pretty quick if she keeps that up. If you make an incorrect estimation when driving of 500%....you are going to have an accident.
It's easy to make crappy predictions and take wild experiments with everyday lives when you have no skin in the game. I'm sure Siouxsie and Michael have not had any pay cuts and were quite happy working from home. But the working poor? The surge in domestic violence? The massive pall of mental anguish hanging over everyone and everything? The explosion in food banks in Auckland? The thousands of hardships we don't see and haven't measured?
It puts me in a dark place.
Sorry.

by Zachary Smith | 19th Mar 21, 5:23pm 1616127831

AIDS had a similar trajectory and interestingly some of the same players.

by Pusheen | 21st Mar 21, 12:46am 1616240774

The essential workers, such as rubbish collectors? sadly, not being given sufficient info. for them to act collectively - they're all taken for a ride in all grand scheme of stimulus for the few % riches.
NZ in 2022 onward will look more likely littered with waves upon waves of prolong working strike in all sort of societal working order, study endeavor, boycott, stoppage. NZ, is it worth it?

by ACB | 21st Mar 21, 1:56pm 1616288171

Yes the (global) media is highly culpable in all this. "Plan B" was the only qualified group I can tell of in NZ who had a reasonable opposing view but got very little, let alone favourable media coverage. Anyone else was summarily dismissed as loonies or fascists. Look at how the media was so eager to eviscerate Sweden's response? Or the incessant focus on absolute numbers of deaths rather than deaths outside of norms for the age group or consideration co morbidities (excess mortality), particularly when reporting on vast countries such as India, USA, Brazil. Why is this? I think it relates to the general decline in journalism quality (they're not paid much as advertising revenues have eroded), headline grabbing, an obvious lack of statistical knowledge and of course political correctness/cancel culture that intimidates away any rational debate in favour of virtue signalling. It's probably a fair statement that journalists tend to be lefties so they're also quite pro big government and not particularly attune to economic realities of small businesses. All very sad.

by EdwardD | 19th Mar 21, 6:13pm 1616130825

Great post Denature. I'm old, but I would have been prepared to take my chances. Like you, I think of all the good things that the huge $'s spent could have gone towards.

by karl seastrand | 19th Mar 21, 6:27pm 1616131662

denature...great post.

by Flying high | 20th Mar 21, 7:08am 1616177317

Are you saying we should not have spent anything... no wage subsidy, no QE but still shut the border ??

by denature | 21st Mar 21, 12:31pm 1616283117

Actually I don't even think we should have closed the border. But I accept closing the border works.
Lockdowns do not. Masks do not. Social distancing does not.
Protect the elderly and sick. Grocery deliveries, testing for their loved ones whatever we need to do. I do not propose we leave the elderly for dead.
But it is possible to differentially shield the elderly and sick John ionnadis has shown it in a recent paper. It happened in Europe plenty of countries had shockers with their nursing homes but plenty had very low death rates in their nursing homes.
The idea that the only way to protect the vulnerable is lock us all down is nonsense, it makes no sense logically and is completely unsupported by any data.

by karl seastrand | 19th Mar 21, 1:16pm 1616112974

Zack,,agree

by Mountie | 19th Mar 21, 1:49pm 1616114965

Good list Zach. It's housing. It's the cornerstone of society and right now hundreds of thousands of people are screwed. This interview on Nat Radio this morning is heart-breaking; https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201878815… A worthwhile 3 minute listen.

by Averageman | 19th Mar 21, 10:43am 1616103797

Agreed. Make a plan and do it. The most common cause of business failures is then the owners fail to act on what's happening. 12 months of tax payers support is enough.

by denature | 19th Mar 21, 11:19am 1616105987

What tax payer support? Wage subsidies support employees not the business. They still have all their other expenses for which they have received no support.
A new public holiday and more sick leave....more government intervention that has nothing to do with whether the business made a plan or not, or whether that plan was any good. Easy to give employees a better deal when you don't have to pay for it right?
Why did the racing industry and the media industry get bail outs, but not tourism? Or hospo?
Surely you intervene in none or you intervene in all? The government picking winners and losers has little to do with creative destruction outside a Marxist paradigm.
So it's bailouts for employees (and by extension the housing market), the racing industry and the media but market forces for the rest?
That sets aside the fact that the government policies like lockdowns have been shown to have no efficacy in the real world. And there unwillingness to open New Zealand back up, also has nothing to do with market forces.

by Nzdan | 19th Mar 21, 11:29am 1616106562

$400m Covid-19 Rescue package?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/122769905/53-tourism-businesses-share-…

by denature | 19th Mar 21, 12:03pm 1616108589

That package received 300 applications of which only 130 received grants of 500k. So the other 170 received no grants.
67 million in grants and 202 million in loans. How does a loan help you if ALL of your revenue has been taken away overnight, based on a decision made in panic?
The Christchurch adventure park received a grant because they were closed for 10 months due to the Port Hill fires? What has that got to do with international tourism being turned off? What has that to do with covid 19? And I don't imagine the Otago museum is that high on many international visitors lists.
International tourism expenditure in 2019 was 17.2 billion https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/tourism-satellite-accoun…
So the government stopped 17.2 billion of revenue and in return gave 67 million (which represent 0.39% of that revenue) to only 43% of businesses who applied for the grant and at least one of the businesses who got the grant was not even suffering due to the border closure. And that of course assumes that the 300 who applied represent all of the international facing tourism businesses in New Zealand. So plenty have indeed got nothing.
However I was incorrect to say the industry got nothing. I should have said "next to nothing", "almost nothing", "the majority got nothing" or perhaps "they received a token amount".

by Pusheen | 21st Mar 21, 12:53am 1616241218

How about those unaccounted $52mil grant for (.. have a guess/put a name= big censorship here), or those millions being taken by ministerial and senior public service CEOs pay cut - the subsidy works? or just buffering the inevitable. The buffer in the end? being creamed by all Banks. No one dare to touch them, not even the govt - let alone the RBNZ.

by karl seastrand | 19th Mar 21, 6:32pm 1616131957

Denature...I can't think of a less worthy industries than the media and the racing industry to receive a bail out. And think of how many houses we could build on the land if we closed a few of these race tracks down. What an obscene underutilization of (in some cases) prime land.

by denature | 21st Mar 21, 9:29am 1616272145

Whole heartedly agree. Nevermind the damage to society of the TAB.....

by Yvil | 19th Mar 21, 1:55pm 1616115351

Averageman, "12 months of tax payers support is enough."

Stop making up stories

by solardb | 19th Mar 21, 1:53pm 1616115182

I'm sure thats comforting coming from someone who's probably made their money on tax free property speculation. I suppose you'd argue that "investors" need more than a year to adjust to a capital gains tax though .

by lowercase capitalist | 19th Mar 21, 10:11am 1616101891

Also good to see that the government is looking to drop the numbers of tourists a bit. I did a few of the great walks a couple of years back and it was pretty grim. Hard to enjoy the view when theres a crowd of people taking selfies in front of it.

by karl seastrand | 19th Mar 21, 10:21am 1616102485

lowercase...Let me introduce another phrase to this site. "net negative tourist". (Foreign) freedom campers are the perfect example of a net negative international tourist as they do untold damage to our country while putting almost nothing back into it.

by denature | 19th Mar 21, 10:35am 1616103340

This is a more than fair point. I would only argue that the government is only using this argument because their panic policies destroyed the tourism industry and now they get to say "nah man, it's a good thing what we did".
They made no moves or efforts to do anything about the net negative tourist before the pandemic.
This is just political spin.

by Squishy | 19th Mar 21, 10:48am 1616104109

I'm not sure you can ever stop people from buying an old van and driving around the country. Hopefully on the near future they will be electric vans though.

by karl seastrand | 19th Mar 21, 12:01pm 1616108470

Squishy.....They can drive their old van around NZ as long as they deposit x amount of money (maybe $700 PP per week) into a NZ bank for each week they are here for and spend it. And any law breaking should see immediate forfeiture of the money and instant deportation and lifetime ban.

by frazz | 19th Mar 21, 12:05pm 1616108701

$700 PP per week? Thats about 2 days worth if you want to do any tourism acivities in NZ..or just look around nd drink coffee?

by karl seastrand | 19th Mar 21, 1:22pm 1616113367

frazz...I know but I wouldn't want it to be an elitist system where only the very wealthy are welcome here. $700PWt would be about 6K for a couple for a month. I reckon once the van is paid for some of these freedom camping couples might only spend about $700 a month each.

by sparrow | 19th Mar 21, 11:14am 1616105644

Yes, but they're the people who are prepared to work for pay and conditions no New Zealander would contemplate, thus keeping the whole "tourist industry" afloat.

by denature | 19th Mar 21, 11:26am 1616106412

I don't understand how does them working under pay and conditions no New Zealander would contemplate equate to keeping the tourism industry afloat?
The fruit picking industry maybe. Possibly hospo to some small extent in tourist centres.
Aren't we talking about the people who arrive, buy a crappy van, stay in free camp spots, crap on the side of the road, and complain about how expensive New Zealand is? I agree we can do without them, but I don't see how them working under pay and conditions no New Zealander would contemplate equates to keeping the tourism industry afloat.

by karl seastrand | 19th Mar 21, 1:24pm 1616113471

sparrow...and you wouldn't expect businesses to pay enough to attract kiwis just like they had to before all this madness started?

by sparrow | 19th Mar 21, 1:51pm 1616115078

Cut off the supply of cheap disposable labour to any industry (in NZ, horticulture and tourism) and they have to either raise wages and conditions to attract locals, or mechanise and become more efficient. If the business model isn't profitable enough to allow it then I don't believe the industry is adding much value to NZ.

by nigelh | 19th Mar 21, 2:38pm 1616117923

I thought the foreign freedom campers and other short term visas allowing you to work provided most of the labour force for Queenstown. Maybe the business owners will now have to work longer hours. Queenstown mayor squealing for help from the govt. I'm pretty certain he has a direct vested interest in tourism and property in Queenstown. https://www.qldc.govt.nz/media/tn3iw2dk/register-of-elected-member-conf…

by streetwise | 20th Mar 21, 7:41pm 1616222460

Geneticists now know that New Zealand has two major species of homo sapiens: the first one, to which I belong, struggles to find why the second species finds Queenstown such an attractive destination; I find nothing inviting about staring at treeless mountains and a bare lake, while shivering with the cold that prevails there most of the year. This second species, according to the latest research, is closely related to that sub-species who are set on briefly migrating to the ski-fields of Ruapehu during sub-zero temperatures.
But most interesting of all is the discovery that those species who are drawn to Queenstown and Ruapehu, are closely related to, through the mother's mitochondrial DNA, the sub-species who buy and frequent baches in Omaha and Pauanui beaches during the hottest time of the year.
Could someone versed in the arcane mysteries of evolution tell me how this diversity has emerged; I would be grateful.

by bw | 19th Mar 21, 10:18am 1616102280

Jim Boult will already have all the answers and the venue ready.

I mean, let's have a look at how many of our politicians, current and ex-sports 'stars' own property down there for instance?
Even John Key, who 14 years ago told us he was going to do something about the disaster that was the property market back then, has just bought into Gibbston Valley.
Stuart is going to be taken into that same back room that they all get to 'visit' when they look like upsetting the apple cart, and the facts of life are going to be explained to him in no uncertain way.

by Davo3636 | 20th Mar 21, 1:58pm 1616201934

Yes, he is the minister of fishing too. Winston and Shane 'took him into the back room' over that issue. Suddenly cameras on commercial fishing boats needed to be delayed... still are...

by Zachary Smith | 19th Mar 21, 10:13am 1616102032

The pandemic has shown us that we simply don't need tourists. It's delightful now going to scenic spots, beaches etc without tourists everywhere.
The income from tourism was highly exaggerated too.

by Averageman | 19th Mar 21, 10:45am 1616103901

Agreed. It was a means to an end to fund a lifestyle. Welcome to the real world.

by FCM | 19th Mar 21, 11:09am 1616105399

Have you ever traveled anywhere and stayed in a hotel or motel, gone for pleasure. If so you are a tourist, domestic, but still a tourist who needs the infrastructure that comes with it.

by Zachary Smith | 19th Mar 21, 12:55pm 1616111738

I believe tourism should be reserved for people like me. Some may think I have probably failed as a human being.

However imagine a world where most of the population of India, Nigeria, China and Indonesia could afford to take an overseas trip every couple of years. The number of tourists would be staggering.

by Yvil | 19th Mar 21, 1:52pm 1616115167

"I believe tourism should be reserved for people like me."

Com'on… this has to be the ultimate: "Rules should suit me, not others" comment, sorry Zach but very short sighted

by Yvil | 19th Mar 21, 1:47pm 1616114863

What do you base your statement "The income from tourism was highly exaggerated too" on? What better income numbers do you have?

by Pusheen | 21st Mar 21, 1:03am 1616241785

You missed the point, NZ need highly exaggerated the $ number for what?.. tick tick tick.. Ouh C'mon, more number in banks credit, housing, insurance, local wages etc.
Now, imagine if the number being capped, what is the next ripple effect? - NZ is now getting into a territory of alcohol binge addiction, but suddenly no more alcohol to consume

by karl seastrand | 19th Mar 21, 10:16am 1616102162

So the mega rich A J Hackett bungy operator who got $10M will really be struggling now.

by youngdumbandbroke | 19th Mar 21, 12:50pm 1616111447

Karl you have no idea how much it costs to run a superyacht full of cocaine and models do you? You're so out of touch!

by karl seastrand | 19th Mar 21, 1:25pm 1616113551

I do know how much the cocaine costs!

by alittle | 19th Mar 21, 10:28am 1616102905

Hi Jenee, Government did not provided travel industry anything extra or much even intially except little and that too just to show that they support otherwise their stand always has been that we cannot save all businesses but here was not saving the entire industry and they only saved few businesses that were considered iconic like bungee jumping.....

Also government did not do anything extra for places that were totally dependent on international travel like Te Anau and West coast - those towns only survival is on tourist and with border closed are on the verge of extinct.

Now he is talking about it after a year as under pressure. Why is this government not proactive ...had only seen it once to protect the housing pyramid ponzi.

Other placres are also having problem but as most domestic tourists ends up in Queenstown, Rotorua, Bay of Osland, Bay of Plenty.....may survive - though not all business but certain rowns and cities with no support from government are bound to be extinct for no fault of their.

Logically if have lock down, government immediately provides wage subsidies and other support. So by the same logic when borders are shut - which is like lockdown to many industries and towns, should the government not provide similar subsidies and support as under lockdown, as for those industries and towns, border shut down is like lockdown but this government runs on lobbying and unfortunately those towns and industries had no unity and representation as a result they failed trusting that this Labour government is for everyone.

On the other hand have been extremely generous with motels providing emergency accomodation and MIQ.

They could have negotiated a Good price specially in this and got good rate for emergency housing. By goid rates not to exploit but offer reasonable margin and pay double or triple as turning this crisis into lotto for many.

This has been most irresponsible government who have ignored advise ( from experts and treasury) and where want to do nothing are waiting for advise (housing pobzi).

by Snow | 19th Mar 21, 10:25am 1616102718

Will make things a bit more interesting for the proposed new airport at Tarras.

by powerdownkiwi | 19th Mar 21, 10:40am 1616103630

There's still the ultimate oxymoron

Not one tourist comes here without fossil energy bringing them.

And there is no PlanB.

by Casual Observer | 19th Mar 21, 3:44pm 1616121875

That goes for the vast majority of domestic tourists too. Just saying.

by Squishy | 19th Mar 21, 10:44am 1616103858

Just apply an appropriate carbon tax to jet fuel.

We can't go on flying everywhere if we want to reduce global warming. I love flying as much as the next guy but the world has to change. Why should some hard working guy driving to work pay fuel tax but if I decide to fly down to Queenstown for a weekend I don't? It's neither fair nor rational.

by Averageman | 20th Mar 21, 10:35am 1616189730

Flying will take 10 years to get back to normal. Most of the planes have been laid up by the leasing companies and will require a major servicing stripdown to get back to flight status. Same with the maintenance teams and pilots. They all require regular work to keep their status up to date. Which they dont have. And then there's the ones that were laid off and found something else to do so a reasonable part of that capability will need retraining or new people trained.

Summary...the global airline trade has lost a capability that will take approx 10 years to rebuild to the level of precovid.

by nigelh | 19th Mar 21, 2:41pm 1616118113

I hope you are wrong.

by Averageman | 20th Mar 21, 10:41am 1616190077

Me to. It is a loss of capability to operate. Removing the Skyhawks as a historical example, the planes and the pilots is the is the very tip of a large triangle of human activity, spare parts and engineering service and support processes. Civil aviation is no different. Throw in massive safety regulations and you have a very grim picture with respect to restarting that capability.

by dago | 19th Mar 21, 7:39pm 1616135951

Hope yr wrong as I miss travelling overseas sooo bad. Waiting for the day. Our pollies have taken a giant dump on tourism and elevated the pampered property pooches. NZ is over.. it can whirlpool down the drain and serves people right for voting for a bimbo trojan horse one-trick pony

by Belle | 19th Mar 21, 11:02am 1616104940

Reread his speech. Its full of gunado's. A year later nothing concrete for the future of tourism in New Zealand. 'This could....' 'I am considering' 'I will be working closely' Where is there an example of the minister saying 'we have done and are doing this this and this. Zip. Tits on a bull.

by iconoclast | 19th Mar 21, 11:19am 1616105976

Everything about Queenstown has been about milking super-profits and monopoly profits for years. With those super-profits they should have built up enough reserves for a rainy day. Doesn't look like it. Now the rich tourists have gone, have the businesses dropped their prices back to reasonable mark-ups? Doesn't look like it yet. $3000 a night for a room in a lodge reduced to $2000 a night. Boult has been out and about making loud noises, again.

by bw | 19th Mar 21, 11:47am 1616107658

"they should have built up enough reserves for a rainy day."

Trust me, they have. But why use them when there's other people's Free Money to be had?
There's been decades worth of re-allocation of assets in the town, many of which adequately allow for 'excess' profit to be put into non-touchable places.
Ask any lawyer down there what their main sources of income are - property transactions and structuring the personal business affairs of residents.

(NB: Here's just one case of structuring as an example. And Fluff (Kristin) should have known better. Leopards and Spots stuff.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/113450639/renowned-developer-john-darb…

by karl seastrand | 19th Mar 21, 12:09pm 1616108973

bw...I wonder how much input Fluff had into the property development business? Let me guess, she provided emotional support, cooked and did the housework and you can't put a price on that. Hasn't she already screwed him for enough?

by 1986 | 19th Mar 21, 12:52pm 1616111567

I have spoken to a few people about this. The well dressed, white face representation of Queenstown tourism is not a true reflection of NZ as a whole. It makes people feel angry when they use loaded wording and scream out for money on tv, rnz etc... It’s tourism for the wealthy and as soon as the international tourists return the local tourists will be priced out again. It’s all use and abuse behaviour.

by Rosenstein | 19th Mar 21, 2:08pm 1616116134

Screaming for money is the NZ way

by J.C. | 19th Mar 21, 2:53pm 1616118808

. It’s tourism for the wealthy and as soon as the international tourists return the local tourists will be priced out again.

The winter resorts of Hokkaido Japan is also a playground for the wealthy. They have been devastated by Covid. Fortunately for the local Japanese, they can afford to ski there, but they've lost a major income stream. The collapse in property prices is going to be dramatic and it's going to hit the foreigners who paid a premium to own property there.

by denature | 19th Mar 21, 1:09pm 1616112564

Dude where have you been? Who saves money anymore?

by Jaybeedee | 19th Mar 21, 5:27pm 1616128051

Absolutely. You are in business and you take the profits when things are going well, and you wear the losses when they aren't.

It's called risk and goes with the good returns in the good times. (and yes,I have owned businesses, employed staff and been through booms and busts)

by Averageman | 20th Mar 21, 10:43am 1616190239

Exactly. Those that dont move with change get run over or left behind.

by CWBW | 19th Mar 21, 1:08pm 1616112491

Hallmarks of socialism; take the money and burn the money. Wonder why NZ has one of the most expensive fuel prices in the world through its taxes but its transport infrastructures are one of the worst.

Without tourism, the country will revert back to its reputation in the rest of the world as a renegade Australian island off the Eastern seaboard in the pacific- just like Papua New Guinea.

by karl seastrand | 19th Mar 21, 1:39pm 1616114367

CWBW..we need some amount of tourism and immigration but we certainly need to ensure there is not "net negative tourism and immigration" regardless of what personally benefits Raskols like yourself. They way things are going, in a few years time, some areas of South and West Auckland may have more similarities to PNG than you imagine.

by Yvil | 19th Mar 21, 2:01pm 1616115702

Perfect politician speak who has never owned a business, hired staff and paid wages. How are you going to "hibernate firms"? How long would it take Qtown to "diversify regional economies over-reliant on international tourism".

Grand ideas, not a clue about implementation

by Rosenstein | 19th Mar 21, 2:07pm 1616116039

You basically take the firm, roll it up in a ball and put it in a hole in the ground, until spring.

by denature | 21st Mar 21, 12:37pm 1616283432

Excellent.

by Rosenstein | 19th Mar 21, 2:11pm 1616116266

Silly tourism. You should do what all successful enterprises do. Have an army and extort the productive sector for money which you spend on yourself and rich people who pay to ask you for favours. Silly silly tourism.

by dago | 19th Mar 21, 7:26pm 1616135195

Or just get in debt to join a ponzi scheme! Silly tourism operators busting a gut for nothing all this time!

by nktokyo | 19th Mar 21, 2:40pm 1616118022

Nash comes across as an absolutely awful minister who is both incompetent and completely devoid of empathy every time he opens his mouth. He's the new Twyford and I hope he gets fired and someone with two clues to rub together takes his place.

by karl seastrand | 19th Mar 21, 6:43pm 1616132584

nktokyo...I agree but at least we now have a tourism minister with an IQ over 70 which might not have been the case only a few months ago.

by Chris-M | 19th Mar 21, 3:12pm 1616119920

Their loss doesn't seem to have affected the economy much so you have to ask how much of the claimed money that comes into the country actually stays in the country. Besides which there are far to many of them making an absolute pig sty of our environment. Rather than leaving it to operators to raise prices (how much of that goes over seas) there should be a $50 per day visitor tax. That way only higher paying individuals would come here.

by dago | 19th Mar 21, 7:16pm 1616134563

Wealthy boomers used to come here by the plane load.. Spending like bonkers on all manner of attractions and experiences in places like Queenstown, Wanaka. Even here in Welly the city was chock with tourists around the waterfront day in day out and always a cruise ship in the harbour. Of course the economy will suffer without tourism. It was our main export.

by Averageman | 20th Mar 21, 10:46am 1616190398

Pretty sure milk and cheese is the biggest export.

by iconoclast | 19th Mar 21, 4:03pm 1616122996

Political reporter Barry Soper on NewstalkZB at midday today on The Country

Jamie McKay Question: is any pressure being applied to the Government to open the borders?

Soper Answer: Enormous pressure - every pressure group in existence

You can take from that the voiceless peons who don't have a megaphone don't get heard
Tourism from Australia into NZ is worth $2.9 billion pa
Tourism from New Zealand into Australia is $2.3 Billion pa
Who benefits?

by J.C. | 19th Mar 21, 5:28pm 1616128080

That estimate about inward bound tourism from Aussie will be based on pre-Covid data. Not sure why people think Aussies will be biting at the bit to go to NZ just because the corridor is open.

by nktokyo | 19th Mar 21, 9:57pm 1616144224

Everyone.

by Dale Smith | 19th Mar 21, 5:29pm 1616128194

'naturally significant tourism spots.'

May be Nash is going to take a leaf out of JK's playbook, Instead of NZ - the Switzerland of the South Pacific,' we could have

'Auckland - the Angkor Wat of the South Pacific.'

by Dale Smith | 19th Mar 21, 5:37pm 1616128659

Went on a guided tour of Soweto when in South Africa. Thought it a 'South African thing' when you went into the diary opposite the Mandela Museum and the staff and all the goods were behind bars and you pointed to what you wanted.

Some Dairies in Auckland are like this now.

Who said there are not Tourism business opportunities out there?

by kiwikeith | 19th Mar 21, 6:03pm 1616130193

I went on a guided tour of Soweto as well. This little old guy who weighed about six stones showed us around. I thought is he the security but he assured he was well known and no one would harm us. Still got mugged at knifepoint in broad daylight in Jo-burg and luggage stolen on an internal flight. I fully understand why any south african would want to make NZ home.

by dago | 19th Mar 21, 7:08pm 1616134122

I feel awful for hospo and tourism as they had the trans tas bubble carrot dangled for so long and some might have preferred to cut their losses if they'd known Jacinda was lying and in fact against the idea (as she let on yesterday). Noticing a theme of deceit here as she treats FHB the same way

by Tillers | 19th Mar 21, 9:58pm 1616144318

Been down to Rotorua and Pahia for work the last 2 months and those towns are very busy! I haven’t seen Rotorua that packed before with Kiwis staying home. Im not surprised that QT is hurting- things are still largely the same prices there, if you want to increase turnover lower your prices!

by Averageman | 20th Mar 21, 10:52am 1616190737

Exactly. Perhaps property ponzi debt loadings are preventing that, but the "dont pay your debt" period is finished so some sort of commercial reality will hit at some stage. Queenstown is very cyclical and the heights this time suggest the drop could be a bad one.

by Small Kev | 19th Mar 21, 10:03pm 1616144614

Understandable, this can’t go on forever. Businesses should adapt to survive with or without foreign tourists.

by Davo3636 | 20th Mar 21, 2:06pm 1616202415

This guy has got to be the worst minister ever doesn't he?

What he seems to be saying is: "Yeah many of your businesses are screwed, but the government is putting up our prices. You have to pay more to go into parks and onto waters. We want some increased income thanks. Just pass it onto your customers, it'll be fine."

by Alter Ego | 20th Mar 21, 4:45pm 1616211932

58+ Billion debt in last year alone has to recovered some how and if relying on more debt to recover more debt, it might just take another Ponzi to get yer money out and about. We may have grit our teeth and 'Stay Home" . Taxpayers are already supporting Rentals and Hotels and Quarantine abodes. 2000 plus in Rottenrua at last count.. crime shooting throgh the roof....And of course Social Welfare and Rates and ACC and of course our Worth While Politicians etc....so maybe we should open the books, fill our boots and help out our infrastructure by accomodating us all free and clear.

Government Ministers and Politians of each hue are and always have had their hand in the Till. Maybe we should all become Politians and own rentals and Bill each other accordingly. Just a Country of 5 million....we have stuck together over Covid.....we should stick together over and over again and claim Tax Benefits of Renting and Tourism and Petrol Pumps and become ShareHolders in our own Tiny neck of the woods. Run it like a Business....NewZealand...all joined together by Funny Munny and no real accounting....taking Place. Cos this Group of Pollies are not accountable, never have been, never will....We paid for their Houses.....if ya follow my drift....Inflation.....Inflation...inflation. ...Gottcha.

by Tom Valen | 20th Mar 21, 5:16pm 1616213803

This surprises me. Since we adopted MMT economics in order to ‘keep the party going’, the new normal is just to get the central bank to print all the money you want (that way you don’t have to bother with that pesky productivity or export earnings). So why not just keep the spending binge going?

by Pusheen | 21st Mar 21, 12:33am 1616240012

All they have to do? is just change name, nature of business; eco initiatives, reduce carbon emission etc. - then claim for wages or business expense or even profit subsidy.. the 'unlimited magic coffers' still standby.. waiting.