! Backpackers?[^1]

Anthony Gardiner for The Guardian

• Stuart Nash (minister of tourism): ban renting of vans to “Freedom Campers”
  • unsanitary
  • takes away from economy (sleeping in van instead of campgrounds)
  • “value over volume” — but WHERE does money from “high-value” tourists go?
• pre-COVID: ~70,000 working visa visitors; ~75,000 on student visas
  • longer stays
  • diverse jobs AND spending
  • “marketing” (omg my trip to new zealand ~changed me~)
  • visits from family and friends (more spending)
  • future visits for nostalgia
  • accounted for almost 14% of workforce in 2019
• Three P’s of business sustainability: People, Planet, Profit

• Missing data

  • environmental impact of long vs. short-term
  • cultural engagements during stay

  
  !article

! Questions…

• has mr nash simply. not considered the relative value of each kind of tourist? who’s his research team?
• what spurred this remark? [^2]
• I also wonder about the numbers that would back up Gardiner’s claim. but i also don’t rly feel like searching rn klasjlgkaj

• i do agree them vans be nasty as hell tho. definitely a continuation of the trend of ecological destruction from higher tourism.

  [^1]: Anthony Gardiner, “Are Backpackers Really Less Valuable to New Zealand than Those with More Money?”

  [^2]: Disagreement over plan to attract high-value tourists, RNZ, 19 Nov 2020

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