In Defence of Stuart Nash

My colleague, Ex-PFC wrote an excellent article yesterday about the new tourism minister, Stuart Nash, who has come out and said that he wants only high-end tourists, not those who defecate in our rivers. There are, of course, a number of different views on this. Ex-PFC lives in the Queenstown area, which is a tourist mecca, so clearly, his experience with tourists isn’t too bad. I read his article and agreed with him on some points, but in the end, found myself coming down mostly on the side of Stuart Nash.

This is a first. Ever. I need a lie down.

In my neck of the South Island, close to Westport, we get a lot of tourists too, mostly young people in converted vans that hold a lot of stuff but clearly have no toilet facilities. Many of these young people like to go for bush walks or climb the hills, and there are not many motor camps in the area. There are a few backpacker style units, but mostly they probably have to sleep in the van. (Some of the accommodation is pretty average, to be honest; our local pub has a few rooms for tourists and the standard is poor, but I am guessing they are cheap. This pub also charges a small fee for camping on their ground, but there are no facilities whatsoever.) There are some horror stories. From discarded rubbish to leftover food to human waste, there is often debris left over from these people trying to travel the country on the cheap. It is not very pleasant, and is even worse for the poor souls who have to clean up the mess, over and over again.

Always remember that, if it were not for tourists defecating in our waterways, we wouldn’t have giardia in this country.

Never in my entire life would I ever have defecated by the side of the road or in a river, not even as a carefree young adult. How anyone can do that is beyond me. But they do, and if the tales told by our local publican are anything to go by, they do it a lot. There are always public toilets around – possibly at the end of a 10 kilometre drive – but these young people clearly don’t worry too much about that. It is disgusting, and I agree we don’t want or need that sort of behaviour here.

These travellers come here on the cheap and spend as little as possible. We see them in the local supermarket all the time. Sure, most of them seem like decent enough young people, but are they the kind of tourists we really want?

Once upon a time, before COVID, we had enormous problems with the sheer number of tourists coming here. There were not enough hotels, motels, budget accommodation, cafes, restaurants or other facilities for the hordes of tourists who came here. There were not enough hospitality workers either. Last time I went to the Queenstown area, it was campervans all the way. We never went near Queenstown, or Arrowtown, or even Cromwell, because the crowds were so huge. We eventually found a cafe at Lake Hawea, a beautiful lake in the middle of nowhere and still had to queue for about 20 minutes to be served lunch. I have to say that the rivers and lakes looked pristine. I really think we do deserve our clean, green image. The whole area was stunning, but the number of tourists was huge. There is no way that we can keep bringing in those numbers without an adverse effect on our beautiful landscapes, waterways and tourist features. You only have to look at Machu Picchu in Peru or Uluru in Australia to realise that. Tekapo was probably heading the same way… before COVID hit.

Now, in the spirit of the ‘great reset’ that everyone is talking about, we have an opportunity to fine tune our tourism. We are not talking about bundling people on planes and sending them away because they are not wealthy enough. There are no tourists here right now. Maybe we really don’t need to bring in 4 million tourists every year. We don’t have the facilities for them anyway. And if we are even considering restricting the numbers, wouldn’t it make economic sense for us to welcome only those tourists who are likely to spend more money in the country?

In fact, I would like Nash to go further than just insist that tourists can only hire campervans with proper toilet facilities. I would like to see us cap the number of tourists that can come here each year. Make it a truly wonderful experience for those that arrive here. After all, 1500 cars in the car park at Franz Josef Glacier and a 20 minute walk amongst a snaking line of tourists to view the glacier is not a fun experience. Sure, people might be used to queueing for an hour to go up the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, but that is Europe. New Zealand has never been like that. We are the land of wide open spaces and breathtaking views. That is how the tourists should see it.

I realise that not everyone will agree with this view, particularly if you rely on tourism for your income, but that’s okay. We wouldn’t need to lay off local tourism workers; maybe we could just hire less overseas workers. I just wonder if our tourism wouldn’t benefit from a few less tourists coming here each year. And while we are limiting the numbers to make it a better experience, why not encourage visitors with stuffed wallets? Isn’t that what tourism should be about for the host country?