5ththJune June2014 2018 27 Jan --11 3rdth Feb
FIRST ON THE STREET
No No 434 653
LAKES WEEKLY BULLETIN
92 J O IN SI BS D E
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Queenstown is yet again grabbing world headlines – and it’s not for a good reason. Recently, US business newspaper The Wall Street Journal published an article about mass tourism in adventure holiday hotspots sparking a global backlash. There’s a brief mention of Thailand and South East Asia, Barcelona and Venice, but most of the article focusses on New Zealand with a decent chunk dedicated to Queenstown. It finishes with an interesting quote from Minister of Conservation and Land Information, Eugenie Sage; “There is a limit,” she says. “If you’re going to a concert and the venue is sold out, you can’t go.” She’s talking about commercial activities on what is one of New Zealand’s greatest assets: conservation land and national parks. This country boasts some of the most pristine natural environments in the world, because it was one of the last countries to be settled and has traditionally been sparsely populated. But we’re lagging behind in protecting the natural environment, when we should be leading the way. Queenstown is the gateway to a number of national parks, great walks and other special places, many of which were used as locations in the Lord of the Rings films. The films, alongside cheaper air fares and social media are some of the factors which have opened the door to mass tourism in the region over the last decade. Mass tourism isn’t a new thing – it has been studied since the early 1900s in Europe, arguably the first region to benefit and suffer from its effects. But when ‘mass tourism’ was first studied by sociologists, the world’s population was a mere 1.6 billion. There’s now more than 7 billion of us on the planet, travel is more democratised than ever before and our appetite to travel and explore seems endless.
Mark e Mark, Nishanth Suthan, Desmund Paul, Vimal Kathir, Dinesh Thangavel and Sujan Selven at Cardrona’s Special opening day on Saturday.
(Photo: Lauren Prebble)
Tourism can’t be stopped, but Sage is right, expanding commercial activities on conservation land can’t go on forever. It’s a concert that’s almost sold out and we need to be careful how we manage the crowds. If New Zealand’s special places, national parks and conservation areas are destroyed, it will be a loss to both the industry and the people who live here and enjoy the outdoors. It would be a great shame to see Queenstown and its surrounds become a regularly cited example of the negative impact of mass tourism. One interesting solution that’s been touted by conservation groups is to manage people for the benefit of the land, rather than manage the land for the benefit of people. An interesting example is Te Urewera, a national park which in 2014 became a legal ‘person’ with rights, powers, duties and liabilities. Another is to cap the use of ‘experience-driven’ transport like boats and helicopters and encourage adventures to meet nature on its terms (i.e. get walking) rather than the contents of their wallets. Tourism and conservation can go hand and hand and it’d be great to see Queenstown touted as the example of how to do it, rather than how not to do it. Bethany G. Rogers
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RENTAL PROPERTIES
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Fine then Evening Snow.
Snow at first turning to rain
Chance morning shower then fine.
Mainly fine with morning frosts
Rain developing. Gusty Winds
Early rain clearing.
Cloudy. Little wind.