Megan Singleton: Bloggeratlarge writer on the international responses to the increased tourism levy

New data reveals prospective visitors to New Zealand are in favour of paying a higher levy to come in.

The Government recently announced it plans to lift the tourism levy almost 200 percent to $100 next month.

BloggerAtLarge writer Megan Singleton reveals that a poll run by the NZ Travel Tips Facebook page shows people aren't as disappointed with the change as predicted.

"A whopping 83 percent said that fee would not stop them from visiting New Zealand. 10 percent said it might affect them in choosing New Zealand and 7 percent said it would."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
News Talk ZB and joining me right now is Meghan Singleton.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Good morning, Good morning, Francesca.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
So there was a really interesting response this week to
the tourist tax for international visitors, and especially a really
interesting reaction from those within the industry, tourism industry.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah, and so I asked my friends over at New
Zealand Travel Tips or MZTT. They run a Facebook page
and they've got over one hundred and twenty thousand people
on this Facebook page, most of which are internationals looking
for tips on visiting New Zealand. Right, so I thought,
let's see if we can run a poll asking those

(00:54):
people who are looking to come to New Zealand what
they think about this new levee. So just a bit
of background, This new environmental fee is which is levied
at the time that an international visitor buys the New
Zealand visa. So it doesn't affect Australians or people from
the Pacific or Kiwi's returning home. It affects everyone who
comes from countries where they need to buy a visa.

(01:15):
And that has been thirty five dollars per person, and
that is due to go up to one hundred dollars.
So I wanted to know because I thought that's a shocker,
and I didn't think we had the luxury, honestly in
New Zealand, of making more barriers for tourism, because we're struggling,
let's face it, on getting all our tourism back to
our pre COVID levels. So they ran this pole for me.

(01:38):
Over one thousand people responded and of those thousand, over
five hundred will be potentially paying the fee. They are
either planning to come to New Zealand or they've already booked.
So here's the stats. A whopping eighty three percent said
that fee will not stop them from visiting New Zealand,

(01:59):
ten percent said it might affect them choosing New Zealand,
and seven percent said it would. And so I was
astounded by that. I mean, that's straight out of the
horse's mouth, right, these are people who will be levied
this fee. Go yep or good, we get it. We
know that rate payers shouldn't have to pay for all

(02:20):
the infrastructure that tourists get to enjoy. And did you know,
by the way, that if a tourist has an accident, here,
ACC will cover them. I don't think we knew that.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I'm not just straight off? Is it as simple as that?

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Well, I need to look into that, because that there
was a lot of conversation. So if you want to
have a look on the Facebook page, it's called NZTT
or New Zealand Travel Tips. Go there, look get amongst
it because there are people asking questions all about New Zealand.
Where shall I go? Where's the best place for this
and that? And lots of lots of keivas are on
there given great helpful advice. Even if you're just looking

(02:58):
to go, you know, somewhere in New Zealand, you'll get
some great answers. But that's where I saw this whole
thread of discussion around the acc I need to look
at No.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Eighty five percent, it won't stop them. That is really
good to hear, because you're right, that's what we didn't
want to happen. We didn't want it to be putting
off anybody else wanting to come to New Zealand. We
want to get this tourism back up to speed. And yes,
we've spoken about it for years about how we want
a different kind of tourist. But and you know, I'm
sure that those slightly more wealthier tourists that we're trying

(03:30):
to appeal to it won't be a problem for them
to pay. But also change our minds. Now you don't
want it in people's minds. Oh, it's getting really expensive
to go there?

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, well, I think we pay it everywhere else, don't we.
We pay for visas here there and everywhere we pay
to go into a national park in America. You know,
you don't have to hear. So I think those people
get that and so and that's all included, so I guess.
And also, what's fifty dollars New Zealand's about sixty US
on the whole scheme of things. That's nothing, isn't it

(04:01):
for a tourist who might be here for two three
weeks a month? Thank you are so fascinating.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah no, And thank you Megan for organizing that little
survey there, and to New Zealand Travel Tips facebook page
for doing that for us. Very much appreciate it. That's
really interesting. Actually, I don't know. I think it is
slightly higher than I thought it would be. Congratulations to
Kate Travis. You are now the winner of the Anika
Mob book, so we will make sure we get that

(04:28):
out to you. I'm sure that you and your family
are going to love it.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudgin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio