Tourism Carrying Capacity
CURRENT FORUM
Community Engagement Report
The report of what we heard during the 6 weeks of community engagement is here!
We’re really keen to hear your views!
We’re looking for your thoughts and views on the positive and negative impacts of tourism and living in a tourist town.
So keen that we’re giving away over $5000 of prizes!
You can either take our short survey – www.surveymonkey.com
Or enter our image competition on FB, Instagram, or Tiktok – https://fb.watch/mUDcMfxDvY/
A huge thank you to the sponsors of the competition for donating the epic prizes below:
- The Rees Hotel: two 6- Course Degustation Dinners (Food Only) at our award winning True South Dining Room valued at $330.
- Kinloch Wilderness Retreat: a night in an Ecoscape studio with breakfast for two valued at $595.
- AJ Hackett Bungy NZ: a bungy jump from the Kawarau Bridge valued at $220.
- Millbrook Resort: 18-holes of golf for four people with two carts valued at $1000
- Future Hospitality group: Queenstown Ice Bar family entry and drinks valued at $200
- Ngai Tahu Tourism: 4 x adult passes for Shotover Jet valued at $636
- Southern Discoveries: coach cruise coach, to Milford Sound for 2 people valued at $450
- IFly Queenstown: Kickstart experience for two people valued at $200
- Beautiful Gardens of Wanaka: a guided garden tour for two people valued at $298
- Ridgeline Adventures: Wild Hills Safari through West Wanaka Station for two people valued at $560
- Edgewater Wanaka: One night in a 1-bedroom Apartment including breakfast for two, valued at $395
- Fed Group: dinner for 2 to the value of $150 at Fudog Wanaka
- Lake Wanaka Cruises: Stevensons Island Cruise and Nature Walk for 2 adults valued at $160
About Tourism Carrying Capacity
A recently published survey found 62% of Queenstown respondents felt the level of tourism was either a bit much or too much.
Shaping our Future are going to dig deep into the questions ‘how do we define too much‘ and ‘what does ideal look like’ at our upcoming workshops in Wanaka on 23 August 2023, and Queenstown on 24 August 2023.
Remember this graphic on the QLDC’s Scuttlebutt? Published in April 2019.
It was a visual graph to represent the number of people who benefit from one taxpayer’s contribution.
34 international visitors to one taxpayer – A significant disparity of a very small cohort of Queenstown residents and local businesses are currently funding the infrastructure needs of 34 times its population.
This was the poster for the Visitor Levy Referendum – which passed through by votes but never actioned due to the rug being pulled underneath us with the global pandemic and all.
In 2019, the groans of over-tourism were painted on front page media and the faces of locals.
Were we at capacity then? Our goal for this month is to determine how much is too much.
What does ‘too much’ look like? What can we cope with?
We’ve now gone through the bumps of the pandemic and there’s a festering feeling that the numbers might return to 2019 levels – Pre- pandemic.
Our local council has pledged the audacious goal to carbon zero by 2030 so what does that mean to our tourism sector?
Does that mean less? Or can we achieve more but with a lighter footprint?
Let’s get deep on carrying capacity. Read more about it in our Blog article or attend one of our Wānaka and Queenstown Workshops.
