Tagged: tourism

Featured image: What would sustainable tourism really mean for New Zealand? Let’s ask the river

What would sustainable tourism really mean for New Zealand? Let’s ask the river - Hot off the press

Guest Author • Jun 08, 2021 •

Jason Paul Mika, Massey University and Regina Scheyvens, Massey University   Excitement among Cook Islands tourism operators and officials at the opening of quarantine-free travel with Aotearoa New Zealand was understandable. The impact of the pandemic on the island nation’s economy has been massive and will be felt for a long time. But it wasn’t long before a local … Read More

Featured image: A quarantine-free trans-Tasman bubble opens on April 19, but ‘flyer beware’ remains the reality of pandemic travel

A quarantine-free trans-Tasman bubble opens on April 19, but ‘flyer beware’ remains the reality of pandemic travel - COVID-19

Guest Author • Apr 07, 2021 •

Michael Plank, University of Canterbury and Shaun Hendy, University of Auckland   New Zealand’s government today announced a long-awaited quarantine-free travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia, beginning on April 19. Provided there is no significant community outbreak in Australia, the risk of New Zealand importing cases of COVID-19 is very low. But should there be a community outbreak … Read More

Featured image: A green tax on long-haul flights favours rich tourists. NZ needs a fairer strategy

A green tax on long-haul flights favours rich tourists. NZ needs a fairer strategy - Guest Work

Guest Author • Mar 17, 2021 •

Michael Lueck, Auckland University of Technology International tourism has clearly been hit hard by COVID-19. But despite the desperation of the travel and airline industries, people are already questioning whether it should ever return to pre-pandemic levels. One who thinks not is Air New Zealand’s chief environmental adviser, Sir Jonathon Porritt. Increasing the price of long-haul flights to pay … Read More

Featured image: NZ tourism can use the disruption of COVID-19 to drive sustainable change — and be more competitive

NZ tourism can use the disruption of COVID-19 to drive sustainable change — and be more competitive - News

Guest Author • Feb 18, 2021 •

James Higham, University of Otago The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s second tourism report urges the government to take advantage of the disruption caused by COVID-19 to transform the tourism industry. Titled “Not 100% – but four steps closer to sustainable tourism”, it builds on commissoner Simon Upton’s 2019 “Pristine, popular … imperilled?” report and presents four detailed … Read More

Featured image: Geyserland: Or, What happened at Taupō

Geyserland: Or, What happened at Taupō - Unsorted

Robert McLachlan • Jan 06, 2021 •

I don’t know Taupō well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, I’m always on the way to somewhere else. Usually Taupō means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the parasailing, and the hole-in-one game. Sometimes a random, generic motel. Read More

Featured image: 5 reasons why banishing backpackers and targeting wealthy tourists would be a mistake for NZ

5 reasons why banishing backpackers and targeting wealthy tourists would be a mistake for NZ - Guest Work

Guest Author • Nov 26, 2020 •

James Higham, University of Otago and Hazel Tucker, University of Otago Raise your hand if you’ve ever travelled for weeks or months as a backpacker on a limited daily budget. Keep your hand up if you were made welcome in the places you visited on your OE, enjoyed chance encounters and experienced the generosity of strangers. And did those … Read More

Featured image: Flight to nowhere sends the wrong message in climate crisis

Flight to nowhere sends the wrong message in climate crisis - Planetary Ecology

Robert McLachlan • Sep 25, 2020 •

Qantas Airlines’ 7-hour “flight to nowhere”, that sold out in 10 minutes with prices from A$787 to A$3787, seemed like a sick joke to climate advocates. Apart from the waste of fuel and the pointless emissions, passengers would be able to see first-hand, from a plane just like those that carried coronavirus around the world so effectively, the sweeping devastation … Read More

Featured image: Swimming with whales: you must know the risks and when it’s best to keep your distance

Swimming with whales: you must know the risks and when it’s best to keep your distance - Guest Work

Guest Author • Sep 11, 2020 •

Chantal Denise Pagel, Auckland University of Technology; Mark Orams, Auckland University of Technology, and Michael Lueck, Auckland University of Technology Three people were injured last month in separate humpback whale encounters off the Western Australia coast. The incidents happened during snorkelling tours on Ningaloo Reef when swimmers came too close to a mother and her calf. Swim encounters with … Read More

Featured image: The sun is setting on unsustainable long-haul, short-stay tourism — regional travel bubbles are the future

The sun is setting on unsustainable long-haul, short-stay tourism — regional travel bubbles are the future - COVID-19

Guest Author • Jul 03, 2020 •

James Higham, University of Otago Unprecedented border closures and the domestic lockdown have paralysed New Zealand’s $40.9 billion a year tourism industry. In the process, the vulnerability of the sector to external shocks and the tenuous nature of tourism employment have been exposed. While New Zealand’s handling of the pandemic has been hailed as a global masterclass, and the … Read More