Christopher Luxon says New Zealand was "slow coming out of the gates" on tourism after the pandemic. Photo: RNZ
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the government wants tourism "turned on big time internationally" in response to the Queenstown mayor's call for more funding for the sector.
He has pointed to the government's city and regional deals policy as a way ensuring support.
Glyn Lewers Photo: RNZ / Niva Chittock
Responding to the new Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis' comments on boosting tourism, Mayor Glyn Lewers said visitor numbers in the area were already high, but tourism's social licence had taken a hit with locals.
"I would expect a very serious investment in actually accommodating those visitors because a small ratepayer base cannot sustainably keep supporting the tourism industry," he said.
Speaking after his State of the Nation speech in Auckland, Luxon told reporters it would not be a case of history repeating itself.
"We're actually going to have legislation in the House this year on our final RMA solution because we're moving with pace and we can move with pace.
"We are not going to apologise because this country desperately needs growth.
"We're powering up our sectors to say 'yes', because actually that's the stuff that people actually want to know. Go talk to some of the businesses as I have in Queenstown about what's it been like when we've had suppressed tourism numbers.
"We were slow coming out of the gates, we lost a lot of our wholesale relationships in tourism. I want that turned on big time internationally and I want to be able to welcome visitors here. We can manage value and volume, we can manage regional dispersal and we can manage seasonality and I think we can manage that really well."
Luxon said there was also a roading package for Queenstown and other investment into South Island infrastructure.
"But the bigger opportunity is actually what we call the city and regional deals and actually as the councils - particularly they're working often with their adjacent councils ... we're expecting them to say what do they think are the most pressing things that over the next 10 years actually would enable this region to grow faster.
"For a place like Queenstown, I get it, there's been challenges in the past around accommodation for workers, there's roading and infrastructure challenges as a result - but what we need is actually central and local government to work together in a partnership through the construct of a city or a regional deal."
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