<
https://theconversation.com/nzs-plan-to-welcome-anyone-from-anywhere-anytime-is-not-a-sustainable-tourism-policy-259246>
"Attracting more Chinese tourists to New Zealand, including during the
off-season, was a major part of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s trade agenda
during his visit to China last week. As Tourism Minister Louise Upston put it:
“we welcome anyone, from anywhere, anytime”.
It’s all part of the government’s plan to “turbocharge” the tourism sector with
an additional NZ$13.5 million for marketing this year. The hope is this will
help double the value of tourism as an export earner by 2034.
The China visit built on the government’s Tourism Growth Roadmap which aims to
attract 3.89 million visitors by 2026, and 4.78 million by 2030-34.
Ironically, the release of the roadmap coincided with unprecedented, organised
push-back against mass tourism across southern Europe this month. Fed up with
the economic and cultural impact of too much “touristification”, residents of
popular cities and islands in Italy, Portugal and Spain took part in
coordinated protests, some even spraying tourists with water pistols.
Before COVID upended international tourism in 2020, similar serious concerns
were voiced in New Zealand about environmental degradation, crowding and
congestion, and declining public support for tourism.
But the plan to turbocharge tourism specifically aims to return international
visitor arrivals to pre-COVID levels."
The right isn’t interested in sustainability. They want a quick buck so they
can say “number go up!”
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
