The price of paradise: New Zealand's Great Walks are losing millions of dollars

Friday, 25 November 2016

Visitors arriving off the water taxis walk across the beach at Kaiteriteri, Abel Tasman National Park.

New Zealand's Great Walks are operating at a multi-million dollar loss, prompting renewed calls for the Government to make visitors pick up the cost.

In the last financial year, more than 117,000 people visited New Zealand's Great Walks – a 12 per cent increase on the previous year – and 60 per cent of those were international tourists.

The revenue and expenses for each of the eight Great Walks managed by the Department of Conservation in the year to March.

Despite the increasing popularity of New Zealand's national parks providing more revenue, the eight Great Walks managed by DOC lost more than $3 million in the last financial year.

The Heaphy Track – from Collingwood in Golden Bay to Karamea on the West Coast – alone had a deficit of more than $950,000.

The Routeburn track, near Queenstown, had more than 16,000 visitors in the past year - more than any other Great Walk.

The Kepler Track in Te Anau was the closest to breaking even, but was still more than $70,000 in the red.

Even the country's most popular Great Walk, the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, with 42,105 visitors in the last financial year, lost more than $230,000.

The Tongariro Northern Circuit had 8596 visitors in the year to March - 64 per cent of those were from overseas.

That some of New Zealand's most popular and valuable tourist attractions are leaking taxpayer money has renewed calls to plug the funding shortfall and make international visitors pay.

Currently, visitors to Great Walks pay between $22 and $54 a night to stay in huts and less than $20 for a campsite. But they don't have to pay an entry fee.

Darryl Wilson, chief executive of Motueka-based tour operator Wilsons Abel Tasman, said he supported the idea of charging visitors to use Great Walks, saying it would be a 'positive contribution to restoration and rehabilitation' of the conservation areas.

He said commercial operators paid a 'raft of fees' that independent visitors did not.

'There is obviously a precedent just about everywhere else in the world. People expect it. I've never gone 10 kilometres from Uluru National Park and gone, 'Oh no, I'm not going to go in there, it's going to cost me $20 a day'.'

In places like Patagonia in southern Chile, tourists pay about $55 NZD to enter the famous Torres del Paine National Park.

In the United States, they have the annual America The Beautiful pass, which costs $114 NZD and lets people access national parks and federal recreational lands.

West Coast Tasman Labour MP Damien O'Connor said he supported a levy for international visitors. Charging tourists about $25 each at the border would generate close to $100 million a year, he said.

'That would be available for all tourism infrastructure, including the Department of Conservation facilities.'

He said charging visitors a separate fee to access national parks and Great Walks would be 'ad hoc, mess and probably inefficient'.

'There's a risk that if we set up something like that the bureaucracy itself would cost more than the direct benefits to the department.

'We should see ourselves as one big national park as a country, and coming into the country was the place that you pay your fee and we retain, I guess, the freedom that most visitors currently have.'

Last month, DOC director-general Lou Sanson said introducing a 'differential charge' for international and domestic visitors was an option.

DOC director recreation, tourism and historic, Gavin Walker, said Great Walks weren't designed to make money but the recent surge in visitors has highlighted the need to 'examine whether the current approach remains appropriate'.

Since DOC partnered with Air New Zealand three years ago, there had been a 31 per cent increase in overnight hut and campsite stays on Great Walks, Walker said.

Conservation minister Maggie Barry said DOC was working with the tourism industry and other stakeholders to explore options for more sustainable funding.

'No decisions have been made, but a number are being considered, such as differential fees for international and domestic visitors.'

She said legislation currently precluded DOC from charging for access to national parks and walks.

Barry said the Government was waiting for the results of a private sector review of a tourist levy. A decision would likely be made before next year's election, she said.

Green Party conservation spokeswoman Mojo Mathers said DOC was 'severely underfunded' and the first step to addressing the Great Walks shortfall was to increase the department's budget.

'Since the last Labour government, DOC has had to endure $336 million less in funding,' she said.

'We're deeply concerned about the effect that underfunding has on all parts of the work DOC does, not just Great Walks.'