Visitor levy must be additional funding not a replacement

New visitor levy must be additional funding not a replacement for existing tourism and conservation funding options.

The new International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy provides much needed additional tourism funding but it must not be a replacement for funding that is already available to the sector, says the Tourism Export Council of New Zealand (TECNZ).

Judy Chen, Executive Officer for TECNZ says, “This new levy needs to be additional to the funding that already exists through initiatives like the Tourism Infrastructure Fund and the Provincial Growth Fund. All serve a slightly different purpose and are helping to deal with the cost pressures associated with tourism growth. Nor should the money raised from the levy go towards business as usual activities, instead it should be used for new tourism and conservation projects and initiatives.”

The new levy will be set at $35 per visitor and will be in place ahead of the 2019/20 peak tourist season. It will raise an estimated $80 million in 2020, to be split between tourism infrastructure and conservation work.

Ms Chen has been invited to take part in a stakeholder session organised by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Department of Conservation to look at how the money collected from the levy will be spent and how it will be governed.

“What’s important is that we take a cautious approach to where the money goes. $80 million seems like a large sum of money but split across tourism and conservation needs it is unlikely to go far if it’s not managed and allocated carefully. The introduction of this levy is an opportunity to create an enduring fund, that is big enough to be useful and able to fund the needs of tourism well into the future.”

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