Eve Lawrence: Intrepid Travel GM on the risks of raising the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy

Travel experts believe that now isn't the time to push up the fees for overseas tourists. 

The International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy is rising almost 200% from next month, from $35 to $100. 

The money raised will go back into services and infrastructure used by visitors to the country. 

Intrepid Travel general manager Eve Lawrence told Ryan Bridge New Zealand's tourism recovery is still lagging behind other countries. 

She says we're only sitting at 80% of pre-Covid numbers, while Australia is expected to hit 100% by the end of the year. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tourist debate. It's raging this morning over how many tourists
this new tax height will turn off a visit to
Middle Earth. The international tourist levy is currently thirty five dollars,
but from the start of next month it'll cost visitors
arriving here one hundred dollars. The tourism industry says forty
eight thousand fewer tourists will come here as a result,

(00:20):
and they spend almost three hundred million dollars. So who's right?
Who's wrong? Eve Lawrence is with Inid Intrepid Travel New Zealand. Eve,
good morning, Good morning. Do you who do you think
is right here? Do you think you know the numbers
being banded about are possible that we could lose fifty
thousand tourists a year?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, I absolutely do. I think coss New Zealand is
losing competitiveness in the tourism landscape, and I think it's
absolutely possible we could lose a lot of revenue to
New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
What types of tourists would be affected most? Do you think?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well, when you think about the recent increases in visa fees,
we're talking about the ash market as well. Here. If
you look at a family of four coming over to
New Zealand from China. They're already now going to be
looking at around two thousand dollars just to choose New
Zealand as a holiday destination. And that's before they even
think about booking flights or coming here and paying for
on ground services.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Is that two thousand extra on top of what they
were paying because of recent heights or that's two thousand total.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
That's two thousand total. So the visa fees of doubled
and the IVL has now increased by one hundred and
eighty five percent.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
How does that compare to similar markets that they might
otherwise go to. I saw Australia put there livy up,
albeit only ten bucks in July.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, they absolutely did. But the reality is we are
still lagging far behind a lot of other nations in
terms of our recovery from pre COVID. We're only sitting
at eighty percent visitation of pre COVID numbers, whereas Australia
are going to recover to one hundred percent in around
about the next three months. We're lagging behind in air
connectivity and we're also lagging behind now on price.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Would you argue now's not the right time. Do you
can see that we do need at some point to
increase this levy because it pays for the upkeep of
our national parks, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah one, But that's also something that hasn't been given
to us or hasn't been discussed, is what this funding
mechanism is actually going to be going towards and how
it's going to be distributed. So we need to understand
what's going to go towards tourism and what's going to
be pushed towards conservation.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
They've seen fifty to fifty split.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, but who's that going to go to and how's
that going to be distributed? And of course we support
an increase, but a three week window in order for
us to push this out to travel agent market is
not long enough. So October twenty twenty five would have
been a more reasonable time frame.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Actually, I suppose people have already booked. Well, if you've
already booked, what you have already paid and therefore you
wouldn't be affected from next month.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
But who knows? I think is it for new applications
or are people that have already submitted thendd ETA going
to be expected to increase their fee if they arrive
after the first of October.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
It's a good question, could get missy, couldn't it? Eve?
Thank you for that, Eve Lawrence and Trepid travel New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
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Speaker 1 (03:14):
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