One of our very best financial journalists is the Herald’s Fran O’Sullivan.
In a deservedly scathing attack on the insanity of the government’s recent introduction of $100 tourist visa fee for Chinese visitors, Fran trotted out some hard statistical facts. These are:
1) Chinese tourist numbers are lagging.
In the 12 months to October 2018, 451,344 Chinese tourists arrived. Last year almost half that number (245,305) came.
Since our introducing the visa fee Chinese tourists to Australia rose by 30 per cent while declining in New Zealand.
2) Singapore wiped their visa fee for China in early 2023, resulting in an immediate 80 per cent increase.
Research shows the average Chinese tourist visiting New Zealand spends $6537.
Given that, readers might well say $100 should make no difference, but if so then they’re overlooking a significant reality.
That is, we humans are never robotically rational in our behaviour.
Instead, emotions, prejudices and such-like factors interfere and never moreso than with expenditure, often seen as a rip-off, no matter how trivial the amount. On the other side of the coin, consider this.
Nepal has just lifted the permit fee to climb Mount Everest in the summer months, from US $11,000 to US $14,000. The fee is cheaper in the winter months.
Circa 1,000 people attempt it annually, but note this, going it alone inevitably sees deaths. To succeed safely most climbers pay companies to escort them, depending on the time of the year, at a cost of up to a third of a million NZ dollars. No matter the cost the silly buggers keep coming, simply for bragging purposes.
Now compare visiting New Zealand at a fee of $100, as opposed to no fee for say Australia.
Irrationally though it plainly is, as Fran has pointed out, it nevertheless acts as a deterrent for, unlike climbing Everest, there’s no sense of accomplishment.
Some cities such as Paris, London and New York often boast of their tourism earnings.
I question these figures. The real value from tourism is in providing numerous low-paid jobs in restaurants, driving tourist buses and so on for, in many cases, people who would otherwise be unemployable and a cost on the state.
Such is the complex nature of modern society. But assuming rationality in human behaviour is always a huge miscalculation in ignoring the reality of our more common irrationality.
This article was originally published by No Punches Pulled.
