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Businesses near Franz Josef and Fox glaciers have issued a plea for government support after a recent survey found widespread job losses and many people abandoning struggling communities.
Franz Josef is one of the areas hit hard by the border closure. File photo
Photo: RNZ / Conan Young
The new Covid-19 impact survey of 103 Glacier Country businesses found 16 had closed, roughly 62 percent of jobs have been lost, most are operating at 20 percent of their normal capacity on average and at least a quarter of the population have left.
The findings have been sent to Tourism Minister Stuart Nash along with a nearly $35 million wishlist to help the communities stay afloat.
Domestic tourism spend not filling $6b hole left by lack of international travellers Monday, February 22, 2021 RNZ
The tourism industry is struggling to fill a $6 billion hole left by international tourists who are unable to visit New Zealand during the summer months.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts says despite New Zealanders efforts this summer, it just can t compare to what international tourists bring in.
He says last year, international visitors spent over $3b in December and January. So that s effectively disappeared entirely . so while the domestic visitor spend, when we do get the figures, might be up slightly, it s not going to go anywhere near replacing that $3 billion.
Stuff
Tourists stream across the busy Tongariro Crossing on Easter Sunday, when queues for toilets stretched to the dozens. (File photo)
Is the view from the top of Mount Tongariro just as special if you’re sharing it, elbow to elbow, with thousands of other people? When Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton released his second report into tourism’s environmental effects this week, the “wildness and quiet” of conservation land was a key issue. “A sense of wildness and natural quiet are defining characteristics of New Zealand’s conservation lands and waters,” his report reads. “For many people, encountering these qualities is the main motivation for visiting a natural area.”