West Coast tourism makes a comeback – but challenges remain

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

Visitor numbers are back to 80% of pre-Covid levels on the West Coast, but a tourism operator says challenges remain.

Scenic Hotel Group operations manager Karl Luxon told the Te Tai o Poutini Plan panel the West Coast visitor economy had bounced back to 80% of pre-pandemic numbers.

However, reduced international flights into the country restricted the tourist numbers.

Luxon also detailed the impact of the Airbnb sector and the challenge of attracting hotel staff and housing them in remote settlements like Punakaiki and Franz Josef Glacier.

The bottleneck in getting international tourists back had also coincided with a prominent "anti-flying" lobby focused on the carbon emissions of international tourism, he said.

Scenic was involved in lobbying to get airlines to return, but Luxon said airfares prices "are too high".

A return to the pre-Covid tourist numbers - upwards of 3 million people - was unlikely, he said.

However, the country remained "high on the radar" of overseas travellers, even if visitor volumes were "quite small" in the global context.

Scenic was now taking a longer view of having fewer tourists but higher value offerings for visitors to the region, he said.

The West Coast visitor market remained very seasonal, Luxon said.

Scenic's Punakaiki site had an annual occupancy rate barely over 60%, but it was marked by huge seasonal variation from 100% in summer to about 10% in winter.

Effort were being made to "flatten out" the visitor economy in the South Island.

This included leveraging off the new Christchurch Convention Centre, where visitors would say, "I have come this far" and decide to take a trip west.

"The reason we're interested in that sort of business is that it is year round."

Commissioner Paul Rogers asked what Scenic foresaw in the long term for tourism to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Luxon said it would take another two years dependent on the Asian market and China.

The West Coast tourism sector, including food servicing, was still contracting in some areas, Luxon said.

This was due to "a massive amount of debt" caused by disruptions in the past few years.

While the sector was now "catching up" some businesses in the region were beginning to fall over, he said.

"Covid for tourism has a very long tail."

Scenic had seen many changes in the 43 years it had been in the region, Luxon said.

The traditional service of only providing beds was moving to an all-encompassing experience, keeping visitors longer than one night.

But, even with this change, the West Coast remained reliant on international visitors visiting for just a few days, he said.

"We're really positive about the West Coast. We wish to expand. We made the submission on the basis of maintaining the current activities while growing new activities as well."

In this respect the new TTPP planning framework should enable this aim, Luxon said.

Scenic needed to redevelop its Franz Josef sites by replacing buildings dating back to the 1950s.

The company foresaw a modular relocatable building approach, given the natural hazards of the area and the underlying uncertainty.

The Alpine Fault avoidance zone at Franz Josef Glacier restricted development in the current built-up area, which he said was "a bit problematic".

Under the plan they would only be able to redevelop their sites at Franz "within the same footprint", which was not necessarily desirable or efficient, Luxon said.