PFW News Update: February 2022

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PFW News Update: February 2022

“Time to rethink tourism”: UN World Tourism Organisation

As Kiwis see our borders opening again – at last – the Project Forever Waiheke team has been exploring how tourism scholars and planners internationally, and here in NZ, are envisaging the future of tourism.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on global tourism, particularly for developing countries and island nations like Fiji, Cook Islands and Tonga, whose economies depend significantly on international tourists and who cannot pivot to domestic tourism.

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PFW News Update: September 2021

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PFW News Update: September 2021

Planning New Zealand tourism’s next directions: Where to after Delta? Update - Spring 2021

Our government, while currently sticking to its elimination strategy, is now focussing on vaccination as the way forward for recovering everyday freedoms in Aotearoa New Zealand. The freedom to travel and move around – whether for work, education, medical appointments, entertainment or a holiday – is dependent on vaccination rates being as high as possible. Countries already permitting tourism again have turned to ‘vaccination passports’ of various kinds, and they are also being used increasingly to encourage, or require, vaccination rates in work and other domestic settings. A similar concept is being developed here.

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PFW News Update: June 2021

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PFW News Update: June 2021

The future of tourism

As Aotearoa New Zealand for the moment maintains its precarious Covid-free community status, most tourism providers around the country have accepted that until every eligible person is fully vaccinated, keeping our borders closed to international tourists is essential. Not least because this allows domestic tourists to travel freely around the country, and without local tourism, many businesses that rely heavily on tourism could be forced to either go into hibernation or close their doors for good. And when the borders are opened up again, there is a similar acknowledgement that NZ tourism cannot return to ‘business as usual’ based on pre-Covid levels: resetting and rebuilding a more regenerative tourism industry is crucial to the country’s future prosperity and wellbeing.

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PFW News Update: January 2021

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Tourism in the time of COVID

It has been a gratifyingly busy summer holiday period for the island’s visitor services and local businesses. Although visitor numbers were down, the total spend in December 2020 was only 2.3% less than the same period last year. The numbers reflect a rise in domestic tourism, with Kiwis from all over the country enjoying our beaches, walking trails, wineries and restaurants.

However, tourism providers are worrying that with the school holidays ending and most New Zealanders returning to their everyday lives, the picture for the next few months is far from rosy. In their latest newsletter, Waiheke Island Tourism Inc (WITI) posed the question of ‘the Waiheke wear-out factor’. “Once Kiwis have ticked Waiheke off their to-do list, do we get classified as ‘been there, done that’, and they’re off looking for somewhere new to go?”

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Survey shows Waiheke incomes affected by lockdowns

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Survey shows Waiheke incomes affected by lockdowns

A survey of Waiheke residents undertaken by Project Forever Waiheke and the University of Auckland School of Environment has found that COVID19 has affected locals’ incomes, with just over half reporting some decrease, although for many that was temporary. Issues ranged from temporary to permanent job losses or reduction in tourism-related income, and people working in tourism and hospitality were apparently the most affected.

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PFW News: September 2020

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Tourism: where to from here?

During our 100-odd Covid-free days, local businesses benefitted from the many New Zealanders (and trapped tourists) who visited the island. The school holidays were especially busy, and there was a general feeling that domestic tourism would keep Waiheke’s economy in a relatively healthy state until the border restrictions were lifted. We also had high hopes of a trans-Tasman bubble and travel to some Pacific islands in the near future.

Our government has been acutely aware of the damage to the national economy and implemented a number of measures, including a major funding package, to help mitigate loss of tourism income. In Queenstown and Rotorua. Kiwis have tried hard to spend locally, but the impacts of losing overseas tourists are far-reaching, and the re-emergence of Covid-19 in some Auckland communities has reminded us that our freedom to travel, even in our own part of the world, is still a long way off. In the meantime, it becomes more and more obvious that tourism, here and globally, needs a radical re-think, and there’s been plenty of comment on this in the mainstream and social media.

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Have visitors finally overstayed their welcome in Hawaii?→

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Have visitors finally overstayed their welcome in Hawaii?

(CNN) — The world-famous Ha'ikū Stairs along Oahu's Ko'olau mountain range, known as the "Stairway to Heaven," has been closed to the public since 1991, but you wouldn't know that from Instagram.

And despite the $250,000 a year the Honolulu Board of Water Supply spends to keep people out of the area, roughly 4,000 hikers still access the stairs annually, to the detriment of the local residents, whose properties are trespassed, and to the board's customers, who are footing the bill.

It's one of many examples of how tourism promotion, which has historically marketed Hawaii as a playground full of escapist pleasures, has backfired. Now, Hawaii must course correct. Seeking more responsible guests, the industry is looking for a bit of restraint -- and deference.

Read the full article from CNN.

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Should Waiheke Follow in Faroe Islands' Steps?→

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Should Waiheke Follow in Faroe Islands' Steps?

Article originally published in Stuff 15/11/19. Written by Natalie B Compton.

It's not every day that a tourism board tells the traveling public to stay away from the destination it works to promote. But Visit Faroe Islands is doing just that with its decision to limit tourist access to the island chain, a territory of Denmark, this spring.

The initiative aims to draw attention to the issue of overtourism by closing major parts of the islands for maintenance, from April 16 to 17, 2020, opting instead to host 100 volunteers for the weekend. The tourism board debuted the "Closed for Maintenance" project this year, resulting in "unprecedented success."

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