Latest / Best of Business / Heather du Plessis-Allan: I don't think now's the time for a higher tourist levy

Transcript

Heather du Plessis-Allan: I don't think now's the time for a higher tourist levy · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks that'd be
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: So today, the government has done exactly the thing that
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: the tourism industry was hoping that they wouldn't do. And
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: they've increased the visitor levy, which is the amount that
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: tourists pay to come here, and it's going from thirty
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: five bucks to one hundred bucks, which is the high
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: end of what they were considering. I mean, the government
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: could have gone fifty bucks, could have gone seventy bucks.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: In fact, they could have just have left it at
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: thirty five bucks if they wanted to, but they went
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: full noise to one HUNDI Now, in principle, I'm on
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: board with this. I've long thought and it's not you know,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I'm not alone in thinking this. I thing a lot
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: of us think this that tourists need to pay a
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: little bit more for the stuff that they're using here,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: because if they're not paying more for it, we're paying
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: for it for them, right, we're subsidizing them. I mean,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: how long have we talked about those poor punters who
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: live in Queenstown who have to pay for the roads
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: that the tourists jam up. They pay for the water
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: infrastructure that tourism gets to use so tourists have a
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: nice time. They pay for the public toilets that the
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: tourists use. The list goes on right, and it's not
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: fair on ratepayers in Queenstown and frankly anywhere else in
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: this country where tourists like to go, who are essentially
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: subsidizing an industry. But while I'm on board with this
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: in principle, I really think the timing is massively Often
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: this is the wrong time to be doing this. For
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: some reason, tourists are not coming back to New Zealand
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: like we thought that they would five years on from
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: COVID and I'm counting it from COVID really starting back
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen, five years on, our tourism industry numbers
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: are only back to about eighty percent, So where we
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: used to have five, we've only got four. We do
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: not know when they're going to get back to one
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: hundred percent. We can't say Australia knows, but they're going
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: to be there in three months time. But for some
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: reason we're lagging. It appears our attractiveness as a tourism
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: destination has deteriorated, and it's perplexing. Even the experts can't
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: quite put their finger on why people don't want to
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: come to New Zealand quite in the same numbers. And
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: part of the problem is China is not flying like
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: it used to. And the other problem will likely be
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: that this is not in the future at least, that
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: this is not the only cost that the government has
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: lumped on tourists. I mean it just last month it
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: increased the cost of tourists getting a visa to come here.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: So now you're talking about people in places like China,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: if they were to bring a family of five, costing
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: two two hundred dollars just for the paperwork before they
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: even get here, before they even jump on the plane,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: and they've already shelled out twy two hundred dollars. I
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: don't think making New Zealand more expensive right now while
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: we're struggling to recover is a smart idea, especially because
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: we really need to recover. We are in our third
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: recession in two years. We need the money. Frankly, this
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: feels like a short sighted money grab by the government.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: They're trying to balance the government's box and it's short
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: sighted because it's going to yes today make the government's
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: box look better, but it's not going to bring in
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: the tourists tomorrow and that hurts us all in the end.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: So yes on principle, but timing is way off.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks B listen live on air
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.