New Zealand: Tourism minister wants affluent visitors, not those who spend ‘$10 a day’

New Zealand has just fully reopened its borders and its tourism minister, Stuart Nash, has announced his intention to attract wealthy travelers as a priority.

Having kept its borders closed for a long time due to Covid-19, New Zealand is once again starting to turn the eyes of tourists… especially those whose wallets are full. The post is held entirely by New Zealand’s Tourism Minister, Stuart Nash, who on Wednesday, when announcing a government plan on the subject, announced his intention to target before all “big spenders” visitors.

“We’d welcome backpackers,” he conceded, but the “rude” stated goal isn’t “to target people who explain on Facebook how they can travel across our country for $10 a day while eating instant noodles. Stewart Nash prefers them to ‘quality tourists’.”

according to guardianThis is not the first time that New Zealand’s tourism minister has made such comments. In 2020, he has already claimed that his country should above all attract visitors who “fly business or premium economy class, rent a helicopter, or go around [du glacier] Franz Josef then dine in a great restaurant.” It was a position that drew criticism from him, as some observers considered him “arrogant, elitist, and out of touch.”

After two years of very strict health measures, New Zealand partially reopened for the first time in May, allowing European, American and Canadian travelers to enter its territory. The latest border restrictions were finally lifted on August 1, and the country is now focused on reviving its tourism business.

environmental protection concerned

Before the pandemic, international tourism was a big part of New Zealand’s economy, but according to James Higham, professor of tourism at the University of Otago in an interview with The Guardian, there is no telling that “high net worth” people have contributed more to the country’s growth than their low-budget counterparts. .

Not least because “the trend over the past decades worldwide is for tourists to travel longer distances, travel faster, emit more carbon dioxide, stay shorter and spend less at their destination”. James Higham explains that the “economic contribution of cruise passengers”, often well-to-do, is “unfortunate compared to the students who come here (to New Zealand, editor’s note) to study”.

He explains that more modest travellers, the “backpackers”, generally stay longer in the country visited, accumulating expenses over time. While the “big spenders” tend to double down on short trips which are not the most advantageous, especially to “distant destinations” which, in addition, are “high-carbon”.

The academic assures him that the “high quality” tourists that Stuart Nash talks about are also often the “most environmentally damaging”. A fact to consider, knowing that before the health crisis New Zealand was already concerned about the deterioration of nature associated with the exponential increase in the number of tourists.