HEATBREAK IN PARADISE
Maybe if you lived on Mars you might not have heard that Queenstown has been hard-hit by the inevitable lack of international tourists since the global outbreak of Covid. “Queenstown business are failing and are asking for help from the government”, has been a news go-to for the past two years.
However, on a proportional basis, other regions are, perhaps, worse off.
New Zealanders did their best to take up the slack, using holiday time to see their own country rather than the Gold Coast or Disneyland, but there aren’t enough of us with deep pockets to step in and replace German, Australian and American tourists or hordes of Chinese visitors.
A month or so ago there was a news item that illustrated the difference between international tourists and holidaying Kiwis. I forget the exact figures, but income from tourism for the entire West Coast – Haast to Karamea – had slumped by around $39 million, a huge fiscal hole. However, the northern end of the coast – say Hokitika to Greymouth – was actually up significantly. I never saw an analysis of that but it seemed to me that while countless Kiwis took advantage of the absence of foreign tourists to reclaim their land, the bottom end of the West Coast, with its expensive foreign tourist-focused attractions such as helicopter flights, was just a step too far. That and the distance, because South Westland is a long, long, long way from civilisation as we know it.
I had heard stories about just how badly damaged the businesses in small towns and settlements were because of the lack of visitors with tourist-sized budgets. So, with my new Mercedes campervan in the driveway, I set out to see for myself.
It was a drive that took us (Audrey,
