Aren’t there backpackers in New Zealand? New Zealand’s tourism minister says the Pacific country wants above all to welcome travelers with a big budget, reports The Guardian. New Zealand is targeting “high-quality” tourists who are “big spenders”, Stuart Nash said on Wednesday as he announced a government plan to reopen tourism.
This is not his first statement in this regard: Stuart Nash already assured two years earlier that the country should attract tourists who “fly in business class or premium economy class, rent a helicopter, take a [du glacier] Franz Josef and then eat in a great restaurant”, a proposal that earned him accusations of elitism and snobbery.
reopening of borders
But “there is no evidence” that big-budget travelers contribute more to the economy, says James Higham, professor of tourism at the University of Otago, interviewed by The Guardian. In addition to having less impact on the environment, tourists with a smaller budget, such as backpackers or students, tend to stay “longer in the country” and their expenses are spread over time.
After two years of drastic barriers, New Zealand fully reopened its borders on August 1: European, American and Canadian travelers could return from May 1. The country had registered 3.9 million international arrivals in 2019, the last normal year before the pandemic, representing more than NZ$16 billion (€9.95 billion).
Source: BFM TV
