Public responses appear to be evenly split on whether international tourists should be charged for access to the country's national parks.
Of the 45 callers to the Otago Daily Times teletopics line, 22 registered being in favour of such a charge while 23 were equally firmly opposed to any such proposal.
Yesterday, the ODT reported a briefing to Tourism Minister John Key warned Government policies and increasing demand from international visitors could lead to "negative outcomes for New Zealanders".
The briefing paper noted access to major government-owned assets, such as national parks, were often free or heavily subsidised and "increasing demand from non-residents in such cases may not translate into value for New Zealand".
Several readers said such charges were commonplace overseas, particularly in Australia and the United States, and this could help alleviate the burden on taxpayers and ratepayers.
Others who were supportive of the move called for any such charge to be "small", so as not to deter tourists from visiting New Zealand.
Jan Atkinson, of the Catlins, said as a person involved in the tourism-accommodation sector she had been "advocating charging visitors for this for years".
She supported a visitor tax on arrival, as it would be too difficult to collect fees at the country's national parks.
"So many international visitors use these parks, Department of Conservation walks, rail trails etc without contributing. They leave rubbish, use the toilets without paying for it."
Many other countries charged for access to their parks, "so, if the rest of the world do it, why should we not?"
"We have amazing national parks and other facilities on offer, which I feel the international visitors should contribute to."
