John Glover: Queenstown Mayor on tourism recovery reaching pre-Covid levels

Queenstown's tourism growth has remained steady over the last few months with tourism levels now reaching 97% of pre-Covid numbers. 

Queenstown Mayor John Glover joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to chat about growth management, the potential for increased flight prices as fuel costs become a concern, and the pipeline from visitor to resident. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we appear to be creeping ever closer to reaching
pre COVID tourism levels. About fifteen thousand more overseas visitors
travel to New Zealand And January than the year before.
This puts out US at about ninety seven percent now
of pre pandemic levels. Now the mirror of Queenstown Lakes District.
John Glover is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hi, John, Yeah, good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Have you noticed it?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Oh? Crazy? Yeah? And this season has been very very
strong for us locally.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
What are you seeing?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
So, I mean it started in November and you know,
the tourism numbers and the people around November felt like January.
So this year has been really really strong. And our
neighboring councils if you look north up to take Apol
for the Mackenzie Council, they've really felt the pressure of
convoys of campavans and others just rattling through their district.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Now, in the past, obviously Queenstown's had a bit of
a love hate relationship with the tourists because of course
of the pressure that they put on the infrastructure. What's
it like at the moment, are you guys still in
that space or just grateful.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
So we're I mean, we're in full noise with tourism.
We recover to our pre pandemic levels. You know, we're
probably a one hundred and fifteen per cent above pre pandemic,
so we're certainly noticing it. I think the conversation's matured.
It is actually a broader one of how we manage growth,
you know. I mean we look around. We've got the
ski fields, we've got the bike trails, we've got the restaurants,

(01:17):
we've got the wineries. We wouldn't have a lot of
that stuff without the tourists. And like myself, many many
people came here as a visitor, came on holiday, stayed
and they ended up putting down routes and making it work.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
How are you feeling about what you're seeing going on globally?
The impact that it's going to have on airline prices,
the impact it's going to have on in New Zealand
flying to the regions, probably not yours though, How do
you feel about that?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, well, we're already seeing some flights being consolidated, some
services being canceled, so the'll be fewer services to Wellington
Crime Church in Auckland. That down price ye yeah. But
I mean that's that's the airline responding to the market pressure.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Are losing John, I'm surprised by that.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
I think there's probably about three to six a week
and so I mean that's that's down to the airlines.
El can solid eight some flights. They'll move some people around.
But I think short term, you know, people will have
got that Easter holidays books. You know, it's not too
long till east of the school holidays, so people I
think we'll just carry on with that. You know, they've
they've probably got their prices locked and loaded. I think

(02:25):
as we get into the winter season and people are
notoriously last minute for booking winter holidays because lastly coming
from Australia, because they want to wait domestip you and
see what US knows doing, so we may see some
hesitation and people I think pricing and fight availability will
feed it into that.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Good luck with it, John, and thanks very much for
your time. John Glover, Mirror of Queenstown Lakes District.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
For more from Hither Duplessye Alan Drive, listen live to
news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.