Ungrateful New Zealand Complains About Poor, Low Quality Tourists

/ November 28, 2013
New Zealand wants richer tourists

New Zealand needs richer tourists

Within hours of being named Favourite Country at the UK Telegraph readers’ Travel Awards, New Zealand has the audacity to complain that its not getting the right sort of tourists and the ones they do get are being cheapskates.

Although visitor numbers were up last year their spend went down.

John Key, Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, says he wants richer tourists and wants them to spend more (!).

Reading between the lines it looks like New Zealand is attracting more of the budget backpacker and student market, and less of the high rollers with fat wallets.

From the NZ Herald:

New Zealand needs tourists who spend more money, rather than just more people through the airport gates, Prime Minister John Key says.

A new report on the industry shows despite more visitors coming to New Zealand, they’re staying for fewer days and spending less money. That’s partly because a large proportion of the growth in visitor numbers had been an increase in low-spending Australians.

Mr Key said the Government intended to spend half a billion dollars in the next four years on tourism promotion, including an additional $158 million announced in this year’s Budget.

Spending would be focused on key areas, including new markets and high net-worth individuals.
“Essentially see if we can lift the number of people coming and the quality of tourist that comes to New Zealand,” Mr Key said.

“Part of what we’re trying to do is make sure we don’t just get more people coming through the airport and coming to New Zealand for a couple of days …the reality is we want them to come here, spend money, and have a quality experience…”

Mr Key would do well to remember its those low spending, low quality tourists that win New Zealand those first-place-tourism-destination accolades.

Or do they? Surely those votes aren’t purchased (or engineered through social media getting Kiwis abroad to vote) just to improve the country’s profile abroad? Now, that would be ridiculous.

Conde Nast

Conde Nast (a travel company that caters for the more upmarket tourist) has a very different list. It places New Zealand 7th – behind Australia, Spain and the USA. Italy tops its favourite country list for a second year in a row.

We think this goes to show how subjective these awards are, we advise people to use common sense when appraising them.

Conde Nast’s 2013 Travel Awards list may be found here: http://www.cntraveller.com/awards/readers-travel-awards/readers-travel-awards-2013/best-holiday-destinations

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9 thoughts on “Ungrateful New Zealand Complains About Poor, Low Quality Tourists”

  2. send us plumper, richer tourists, shedding currency. Our mouths are open. We’re very poor in New Zealand, despite our scenery riches. But don’t tell anyone that.

  3. When you poll online, it’s easy to round up voting bloc mobs to sway the vote one way or another. And deleting of bad reviews is all part of the reputation management service. New Zealand really ought to consider that people who visit, visit to roll around in all the scenery. Who gets transcendent about earth porn? People who have money? No. NZ is a long way to go for people with no money, as well. NZ does not have the features that rich people want when they travel. When rich people go to the South Pacific, they go to Bora Bora. If they go to Europe, they go to St Tropez. Bahamas, Las Vegas, Italy, etc. They want to be comfortable on vacation and have a bit of luxury, forget their cares. New Zealand is a lot of things – but it is NOT comfortable.

  4. The vomit-inducing article on New Zealand in the Torygraph was written by that completely unknown Australian hack Mark Chipperfield who was probably too pissed to know where he was. I suspect he was writing about Australia. Anyway you should smell instant rat when an Aussie writes in such glowing terms about the retards across the ditch. Of course the rude and totally uncultured ‘Kiwis’ view tourists (and immigrants) as cash cows to be squeezed as hard as possible and be robbed, raped and murdered. Why do you think Key was making a fool of himself in London recently? Chipperfield should have stayed on that freighter from Auckland to Amsterdam all those years ago. Pass the bucket.

  5. I did some work in tourism when I had the misfortune to live in New Zealand. The Department of Conservation was exploring the idea of abolishing its seasonal passes for the huts at national parks. The reason was that backpackers from overseas would obtain an annual pass and use it “more than they should” rather than staying at paid lodging. The idea was to find ways to extract as much money from the backpackers and other tourists. Similarly, some areas of New Zealand have outlawed “freedom camping”, where people pull over in a pullout and sleep in their cars/caravans ostensibly because the tourists leave rubbish. In reality, the holiday parks and hotels do not want people to bypass their accommodation.

    Admittedly, New Zealand is a nice country for a visit, but one can find comparable if not more beautiful places without having to fly to the other end of the world. Tourism New Zealand is a well funded scam.

  6. There is a constant stream of ads and editorials about New Zealand in The Torygraph. Tourism NZ must be one of its biggest sponsors, no surprise then that it should come out top in the survey.

    What other awards were given?

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