At the welcome for The Great Southern Tourism Opportunity conference in Queenstown last night, Queenstown Lakes Mayor Jim Boult put the pressures the resort is facing, through rapid and unprecedented growth, into numbers.
Last week, he read the latest Infometrics report which showed the resort was still growing faster than anywhere else in New Zealand. Assuming the resort’s population continued to grow at the rate it has for the past three years, it would double in size every decade, he said.
The council’s long-term plan forecast a $1.3billion spend over the next 10 years to provide the infrastructure the future resident and visitor populations would require.
Mr Boult said a "significant part" of the required funding would come from the NZ Transport Agency and the council would seek to increase debt and sell assets to raise more.
"Right now, realistically, to fund that $1.3billion ... we are short around $400million to $500million.
"One of our jobs is to find where $40million to $50million a year comes from, out of a rating base of 16,000."
The council was preparing a business case for next year’s Budget, but "going to Government every year for a handout is not a sustainable solution", Mr Boult said.
However. a visitor levy would be.
Last year, there were about 4.5million commercial visitor nights spent in Queenstown. If each tourist paid $10 per night "that gives us $45 million per year and our problems are solved".
"Our problem is not a local issue. If the experience of the visitors here deteriorates, so will New Zealand’s return from our largest industry. We need to explore ways we can grow together."
Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis said a visitor levy was one option the Government was investigating to help alleviate pressure on infrastructure.
He would also talk to Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones about the new $1billion per annum Regional Development (Provincial Growth) Fund to see if it could be used to support tourism.
Mr Boult said today’s "meeting of the minds," involving representatives from local authorities in the southern South Island as well as Kaikoura and tourism industry representatives, was the "first step" in a collaborative approach in the South.
