Tourism minister to ban tourists from hiring vans that are not self-contained
Tourism Minister Stuart Nash says freedom camping in vehicles that are not self-contained will be banned as part of efforts to market New Zealand to super-wealthy overseas tourists.
Speaking on Radio NZ’s Morning Report, the incoming minister said he planned to introduce regulations that ban the leasing or hiring out of vans that do not contain toilets to tourists.
“Gone are the days, as far as I am concerned, where you hire a cheap van that is not self-contained,” he said.
“We get all these vans driving around at the moment that are not self-contained, so if the driver or the passenger wants to go to the toilet – we all know examples of this – they pull over to the side of the road, and they s... in our waterways.”
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Nash said he wanted Tourism New Zealand to target high-net-worth visitors likely to spend up large.
“I am not saying we close the border to those who haven’t got a million dollars in their bank account. What I am saying is they will not be the target market and every tourist that comes to New Zealand ... will pay for the New Zealand experience.”
He defined high-net-worth visitors as those who will spend “a hell of a lot of money” in the country.
“The sort of person who comes in, flies business class or premium economy, hires a helicopter, goes out and does a tour around Franz Josef and eats at a high-end restaurant … we do not need to spend money attracting backpackers here.”
Nash said that while overseas visitors who hire self-contained vehicles are not necessarily the sort of visitors New Zealand wants to attract, they will continue to be allowed to do so.
“If you are willing to pay for a campervan, at least you have the ability to dispose of your excrement in a way that meets our sustainability goals and, quite frankly, our brand.”
Nash said he was looking at “innovative ways” to ensure taxpayers and ratepayers do not have to pay for tourism’s impact on infrastructure and the environment.
“What we are looking at is a unique opportunity for a reset. We have not got tourists here at the moment, so we have an opportunity to redefine our global value proposition and market to those who are going to add significant value to our country.”
He said there was pent-up demand from wealthy travellers “who are stuck in Europe and the United States and parts of Asia”.
“All our marketing effort will be going into those high-net-worth individuals who are looking for a piece of paradise as they sit in lockdown in New York or London or Berlin or Paris and are looking at us with 30,000 people at a rugby game and going: I want a piece of that.”
Meanwhile, in Queenstown on Wednesday, Nash hinted a solution was coming for worker shortages faced by New Zealand's under-pressure tourism sector.
Desperate Queenstown tourism operators have called on the Government to extend working visas for migrant workers so they can keep working in the short term and help alleviate a looming shortage of summer workers.
“I’m going back and have a talk with the minister of immigration and the minister of finance and other cabinet colleagues to outline a solution that I think in the short term may alleviate a couple of the problems the Queenstown district has,” he said.