Otago Region, Queenstown. Photo: 123RF
Queenstown Lakes councillors are being warned that increasing tourist pressures could trigger protests and local hostility if there is not urgent intervention and investment.
The prediction was laid bare in a report detailing a regional deal proposal between the Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes district councils and Otago Regional Council to address the region's critical needs and support sustainable economic growth over the next three decades.
Both regions have bounced back strongly in the wake of the pandemic, but the report tabled at the Queenstown Lakes District Council meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the Queenstown Lakes' Tourism Approval Rating score is the lowest in NZ, sitting at 19 and indicating disapproval.
"Without intervention, Queenstown risks becoming the next Barcelona," the report said.
A case study of the Spanish destination detailed protests against tourism that garnered world-wide attention and created a reputation of local hostility, which the report named the Queenstown Lakes as one of few New Zealand destination at risk of similar behaviour.
It comes at a time that the government wants to boost tourism numbers back to 2019 levels - which is sitting at about 82 percent of its pre-Covid visitor levels.
Visitor numbers have already recovered in the Queenstown Lakes with international arrivals at Queenstown Airport already 28 percent higher than 2019 levels.
But the report said high growth was already putting pressure on infrastructure and visitor growth was compromised.
"Planned 10-year water investments will unlock housing growth, but transport networks are at capacity, energy needs are unmet, health services are insufficient, and current tools fail to ensure visitors and growth contribute to infrastructure costs," the report said.
"To meet the government's ambition for economic growth fuelled by tourism, investment is required to maintain the visitor experience and resident quality of life."
Resident's approval ratings to tourism had been decreasing consistently since the influx of tourists after the border reopened.
"This stark difference shows the precariousness of tourism's social license in this sub-region and highlights the urgent need to cultivate positive community attitudes by improving infrastructure and implementing effective destination management practices.
"This will ensure visitor satisfaction, maintain the destination's appeal, and encourage return visits," the report said.
The proposed regional deal listed different priorities and projects including increasing tourism productivity, improving transport, electrifying the Otago Central Lakes, exploring partnerships with private investors to boost publicly-funded health services and addressing the region's housing and growth challenges by ensuring visitors contributed their fair share.
Without intervention, traffic congestion was forecast to worsen with peak hour trips forecast to double on key routes and by 2028, the 11 kilometre trip between Lake Hayes Estate and Queenstown Town Centre was forecast to regularly exceed an hour.
The proposal would look at a mix of funding options and tools including approaching the private sector, exploring an accommodation levy for visitors, using the international visitor levy to create a fund to help cover critical infrastructure costs, public private partnerships and road pricing.
"This proposal asks for the tools and frameworks to realise the exciting potential of the sub-region at pace, working with the private sector and iwi to deliver; the sub-region is ready to go and open for business," the report said.
During a meeting on Tuesday, councillors raised some concerns about the unknown and uncertainty of the proposal and how the other council votes might impact it, but some said they believed there would be opportunities to explore any issues further as the work progressed.
Mayor Glyn Lewers. Photo: Supplied
Mayor Glyn Lewers said a lot had been done in two months to progress this work despite the often "limiting" framework.
"For those that are worried about this being the end game, I'm just pointing out that the Manchester Deal has been running for 13 years now. They're onto their eighth deal. This is an evolving process," he said.
He believed the proposal would help the region come to the table with central government - as an equal - and help them to achieve things that councillors had been talking about for years.
"I'm constantly challenged by people of the public to be bold, here's your chance councillors to be bold."
Councillors gave the proposal a green light with plans to submit it to the Department of Internal Affairs later this month, although the vote was not unanimous.
If undertaken, the proposal aimed to add billions of dollars of growth to the country's GDP over the next decade on top of the billions already forecast.
Back in 2019, residents voted in favour of a bed tax to help fund infrastructure in the resort town, but it was put on the backburner during the pandemic.
The updated charge aimed for all visitors to fund about 30 percent of the infrastructure costs involved in supporting peak visitor numbers that were double the resident population in the Queenstown Lakes.
During public forum, one speaker called on councillors to reconsider the location of a proposed Otago Central Lakes Hospital in Queenstown, saying it would disadvantage people living in the Upper Clutha and a more equitable location should be sought.
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