The solution to overtourism is to stop so many tourists visiting, and the tourists the Kiwis' ideas target are those who don't have as much money to spend as others, writes bengroundwater travellerau travelbubble nztravel
It's never felt particularly crowded to me at Milford Sound. Walking the Milford Track, a 53-kilometre amble through some of New Zealand's most spectacular Fiordland scenery, you don't see all that many people.
And it's not just Milford Sound. This is one of several areas in New Zealand that have been heavily reliant on the tourism dollar, and which have also experienced huge numbers of visitors – too many, according to the NZ tourism minister, Stuart Nash. His plan, announced last week, is to scale back those tourist numbers in the future by targeting"high-value" visitors who will bring just as much money to these regions, with fewer annual visits.
You will now receive updates from Traveller Newsletter Traveller Newsletter Get the latest news and updates emailed straight to your inbox. Other countries are considering similar moves. Indonesia has mooted sky-high entrance fees for the environmentally sensitive Komodo Island in 2019. Earlier that same year, Venice introduced fees for day trippers wanting to enter the city.
Similarly, the proposed departure tax, being regressive, will hit those on lower incomes hardest. If you have plenty of spare cash an extra levy will just be a bit of a bummer. But if you're scraping together the money just to make it onto a budget flight, this could tip you over the edge of not even visiting.
The idea from the New Zealand government, however, is to take that privilege away from some people. It's to say that travel should once again only be for a certain group of people, and not those who have only so recently been able to access it. There's too many of you, the policy says. The poorer ones need to stay away.
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