Queenstown tourism: Leaders lay out their vision with more visitors on horizon

The borders are open and tourists are back in Queenstown Lakes.

But pre-Covid, residents were almost unanimous in the view they had reached peak tourism.

Queenstown Airport predicted pre-pandemic visitor numbers would return in the 2025 financial year.

So questions remained about the tourism Mecca's future and the shape its residents wanted it to take.

In 2019, Queenstown Airport recorded more than 2.3 million passenger movements with international tourists bringing well over a billion dollars into the local economy.

The airport said it would soon hit the limit for its allowed number of flights and it was likely the number of flights into Queenstown would need to double by 2045.

The rise of freedom camping over the previous decade had also increased tensions between locals and visitors.

Queenstown Airport chief executive Glen Sowry said while a return to pre-pandemic visitors was expected by 2025, the idea of endless growth was now off the table.

Advances in aircraft technology meant more people could arrive in Queenstown on fewer flights.

The airport could operate within the existing noise boundaries - in essence, the number of allowed flights - for the next decade and possibly longer, Sowry said.

"We think there's absolutely a path through this where we continue to provide the level of air services that this district and the tourism industry and the people that live here need. But it's not going to be growth at any cost," he said.

That in a nutshell was the vision for Queenstown Lakes and its tourism sector now the borders had re-opened - more people on fewer planes with the sector targeting "high-value" visitors.

"That's the critical balance ... like three legs of the stool, making sure they all remain in balance and stable is critical to the success of aviation and tourism in the Queenstown area," Sowry said.

When the borders shut in early 2020, there was talk of the area's economy pivoting or being re-imagined in a post-pandemic world.

But Queenstown Lakes Mayor Jim Boult was not a fan of such language.

"If there's two words I hope I don't ever hear again it's reimagining and pivoting," Boult said.

"People were saying our economy needed to pivot in the middle of the pandemic. If you are a restaurant in the middle of Queenstown and there's no customers, tell me how you're going to pivot?"

Queenstown Lakes' prosperity had gone hand-in-hand with tourism and always would, he said.

But that did not mean there was not a better balance to strike and opportunities to diversify the economy.

"There's a desire, which has been spelled out in our destination management plan, to see our offering more aimed at greater value from our visitors with perhaps less numbers and I think we are on track to achieving that," Boult said.

"The trick to any recovery is to make it sustainable and to do it in a way that offers resilience so we don't damage our economy or our reputation or our community's lifestyle while we recover."

However, he did not imagine Queenstown Lakes becoming the Aspen of the South Pacific.

It was not about taking a snobbish outlook to visitors as today's backpackers might be tomorrow's high-value tourists, Boult said.

There had also already been some movement in the diversification of the area's economy.

Boult pointed to the $280 million Silverlight Studios development in Wānaka as an example of what lay on the horizon for the district.

Simon Telfer, who chaired the regenerative recovery group set up by the Queenstown Lakes District Council when the pandemic hit, agreed greater diversity was needed in the local economy to protect against any future shocks.

The work-from-home revolution had provided the area with real opportunity, he said.

"There is no doubt that remote working in the region has taken off," Telfer said.

"We've had an influx of domestic refugees coming to both enjoy Lake Wānaka and Lake Whakatipu - that's really prevalent. We have a huge knowledge base, we have a huge professional services base down here. We have all those remote workers and I think that's one thing that the district and the region needs to leverage.

"These individuals are fantastic. They are helping to keep the local economy ticking over, they're making it more vibrant, their children are at schools, they're volunteering and helping out in the community. And how do we then build some sectors or some knowledge-based institutions around those?"

However, Telfer, who was standing at the local elections for the Wānaka-Upper Clutha Community Board, was also realistic about the importance of tourism to the area.

While the pandemic had changed how locals saw the sector, it had also brought to the forefront the need to balance the competing interests of the economy, the environment and residents, he said.

"I think there has been a mindset change and a real understanding that economic diversity and recovery has got to go hand-in-hand with things like community, social, cultural, and environmental wellbeing as well."

One group keen to see the area delivering in those spaces was Mana Tāhuna, which was set up in the wake of the pandemic to meet the needs of the area's Māori and Pasifika.

Mana Tāhuna tumu whakarae (chief executive) Michael Rewi said the wellbeing of the community had to be at the forefront of its future.

"What we really value and uphold, and the whānau voice we're receiving, is the need for better support for our rangatahi, better opportunities and career pathways for them. As well as more support for Māori when it comes to mental health and health services."

While the vision for Queenstown Lakes' future was in its infancy, Māori, Pasifika and young people wanted to be at the table for the discussion, Rewi said.

Boult, who was stepping down as Queenstown Lakes mayor in October, said one thing his successor would need to grapple with was how to fund the infrastructure tourists utilised.

A proposal to introduce a bed tax was put on ice in the early days of the pandemic, but Boult was adamant it would need to go back on the table.