January 18, 2017 12:00pm by David Farrar

Someone wants a cap on tourists

The recent discovery of human waste along a popular cycling track in Taupo was as predictable as it was avoidable. …

But do we really want further increases in the hordes who already clog our special places each summer simply to provide increased profits for the self-serving exploiters of the tourism industry?

No doubt they will trot out the mindless and false mantra that tourism brings jobs and extra money that eventually flows into the nation’s economy. Most of the tour packages are sold offshore and most of the jobs are poorly paid. Furthermore, we could also say the same about drug trafficking.

First Mr O’Connor equates tourism to drug trafficking.

Secondly he just ignores the fact tourism brings in around $10 billion a year to New Zealand, and the tourism sector has around 110,000 jobs.

We need to be doing much more than simply throwing the doors to New Zealand open to endless crowds of tourists who will crowd and foul our scenic places, pose a danger on our roads and put unbearable pressure on limited infrastructure. We need national regulations for mitigation and that must include a realistic cap on visitor numbers.

This may be the stupidest proposal of all time. Or at least for a few months.

Scores of countries have visa free travel to New Zealand. To have a cap on tourist numbers means we would have to impose visas on every country on Earth. It would also break several agreements we have. The result would be a massive decrease in not just tourism, but all travel to NZ and also would mean many countries would retaliate with a visa requirement for NZers.

I don’t know a single country in the developed world that has a cap on visitor numbers. There is a reason for that.

Yet Mr O’Connor wants this because someone took a shit by a cycling track.

By this logic New York should scrap the New York marathon because some competitors answer the call of nature where they shouldn’t.