Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Mat Woods: Destination Queenstown & Lake Wanaka Tourism CEO on Tourism numbers are still looking up

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Mat Woods: Destination Queenstown & Lake Wanaka Tourism CEO on Tourism numbers are still looking up · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Tourism continues to roll back, sitting now ninety two percent
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of pre COVID levels with three and a half million
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: visitors a year. The monthly numbers international visitor arrivals up
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: one point seven percent in February from January, though there
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: was a one off boosts there because the Chinese lunar
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: New Year timed well for US. Matt Woods CEO Destination, Queenstown,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Good morning, Ryan. How are you very well?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: And you must be happy with how this is going tracking.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Look, I think Queenstown has been tracking really well. Yeah,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: since we got out of the lockdowns of COVID and
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: we bounced back to sort of those pre COVID levels
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: back in about twenty twenty three. But of course, you know,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: seeing Chinese a year coming into February, that had a
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: real impact. We've had a massive February down here.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: And how far above pre COVID are you now in Queenstown?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Oh? Look, I think it's fair to say if we
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: look at like the national growth at the moment, we're
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: sort of sitting around about eleven percent this year of
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: growth on year on year compared to last year. Nationally,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: we're sort of sitting about six percent, so we can
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: see that Queenstown has been growing much faster. We know
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: at the airport is roughly about sort of forty percent
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: up on pre COVID levels at the moment, so quite
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: quite well up at the moment, and I think that's
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: that pressure that we're really feeling on the infrastructure with
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: the increased visitation.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you mentioned the McKenzie district when you were speaking
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to my producer, and I wondered if you could tell
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: us specifically why.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look when you producers name happens to be McKenzie
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: as well. So we talked about McKenzie, Monica and Queenstown,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: and these three areas particularly are sort of areas that
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: are really feeling that pressure from increased visitation. And look,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: we're all about actually growing tourism, but we need to
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: make sure we have the right infrastructure in place. And
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: the problem that we have in those three districts that
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: we just talked about McKenzie, Wanica and Queenstown is we
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: have a really low rate payer base. And so earlier
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: on the show you were talking about a bid tax,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: and that's something that we really need to look at,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: not just for those three regions, but for New Zealand
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: for the regions that need them, and of course we're
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: seeing Wayne Brown looking at this in Auckland as well.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: They need a bid tax for events. We need a
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: bid text down here for infrastructure. And I think you
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: know that sort of stat that you used earlier, that
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: is thirty international visitors to one resident in Queenstown's MA.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: How do those residents in Queenstown pay for that infrastructure
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: for those thirty international visitors.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: They will eventually do this. I think the National Party
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: is going to take it to the election. What do
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: you reckon?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I think you're right. I think we're going to see
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: quite a lot of campaigning around a bid text. We
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: need to get one. And if we're going to grow
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: tourism to be our number one export, it's number two
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: at the moment. We actually gonna have to invest in
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: infrastructure to make sure that we deliver a great experience
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: for the visitors and also the people that live there.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Matt would CEO Destination Queenstown Lake Wanaka Tourism.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: to News Talk Set B from five am weekdays, or
• 2:38
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