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Ryan Bridge: The Nats will eventually back a bed tax · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Louise Upston. She's tourism. She's getting advice from officials on
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  Speaker 1: a bed tax, an accommodation levy. Call it what you will.
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  Speaker 1: Luxeon told us this last week. They're not being explicit
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  Speaker 1: about it yet, but the idea is a no brainer
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  Speaker 1: and will eventually happen in Auckland. And the Auckland deal
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  Speaker 1: Luxon did with Wayne last week they promised to investigate one.
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  Speaker 1: Wayne took this to mean the thing would be introduced
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  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty seven, though we have an election to
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  Speaker 1: go before then. Obviously we've had a new visitor numbers drop.
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  Speaker 1: We're back to ninety two percent of pre COVID three
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  Speaker 1: and a half million internationals a year. Great, but the
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  Speaker 1: roads and the housing and the pipes can't take much
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  Speaker 1: more of this. The government's goal is almost five million
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  Speaker 1: internationals a year. In Queenstown. For every single ratepayer funding
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  Speaker 1: local infrastructure there, you've got thirty to thirty four international tourists.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: They're hiking, they're skiing, they're smashing a Ferg burger down
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  Speaker 1: in Queenstown. The ratio one to thirty. In Auckland, it's
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: one to one tourism hot spots with small populations. Small
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: resident populations struggle to fund what is required, roads, amenities, housing.
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  Speaker 1: They all suffer as a result, and the government is
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  Speaker 1: so far I've been turning around and saying to Queenstown, NAT,
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  Speaker 1: you can't have a bed tax. NAT. They want five
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  Speaker 1: percent done in Queenstown. And they're doing this because they
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  Speaker 1: don't like the word tax. Right. They've made some promises
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  Speaker 1: about this, but as I've said many times on the
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  Speaker 1: show before, they will you turn on this position because
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  Speaker 1: it makes no sense and logic will prevail. You can't
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  Speaker 1: rely on a ratio of one to thirty. Rod Drury,
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  Speaker 1: he lives down there in that way, he reckons we
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  Speaker 1: need a model like Aspen and Colorado, there are similar
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  Speaker 1: mountain towns. They use tourism revenues to fund core infrastructure,
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  Speaker 1: not just marketing. Ninety percent of the local lodging tax
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  Speaker 1: they call it there. You can spend that on affordable housing,
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  Speaker 1: childcare for workers important because you need workers to run
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  Speaker 1: the place, capital improvements to the trails, etc. Ten percent
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  Speaker 1: of that is required to stay in pure a promotion
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: for tourism. It's a good idea, it makes sense. It's
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  Speaker 1: only a matter of time before we do the same.
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