New Zealand joins growing trend to charge foreign tourists more
The government plans to levy a fee of as much as NZ$40 (S$30.49) on foreign visitors to key natural attractions such as Milford Sound, the majestic fjord reputedly described by the writer Rudyard Kipling as the eighth wonder of the world. The charge, which could be introduced in 2027, will not apply to New Zealand residents.
'New Zealanders have already contributed under broad taxation to run the Department of Conservation,' said David Simmons, emeritus professor in the Department of Tourism at Lincoln University. 'International visitors have not.'
Dual-pricing systems, where foreigners pay more than locals to visit national parks, museums and heritage sites, are becoming more popular globally as a means to raise revenue for infrastructure or to control overtourism.
US President Donald Trump last month instructed the Secretary of the Interior to consider increasing charges for non-residents at those national parks that already have entrance fees, while some sites in Japan have recently begun introducing higher prices for foreigners, for example, at the newly opened Junglia theme park in Okinawa.
Overseas visitors routinely pay more to visit India's Taj Mahal, the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Peru's Machu Picchu citadel.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
Sign Up
Sign Up
Some countries use the proceeds to fund conservation, waste management and infrastructure upkeep. Others employ the strategy to reduce stress on urban environments, such as the Italian city of Venice, which is trialling an entrance fee for day-trippers to control crowds during the peak tourist season.
In New Zealand's case, creaking infrastructure is the main issue.
At the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a track through a World Heritage Area on the central North Island volcanic plateau, thousands of tourists often overwhelm facilities designed to be used by a few hundred people a day.
Such overloading has fuelled concern that a bad tourist experience will harm New Zealand's clean, green image and dent an industry that is the country's biggest export earner after dairy products and a key driver of economic growth.
The government estimates it will raise NZ$62 million a year from the charge on foreigners, which it will reinvest in the sites to improve the visitor experience.
Initially, four sites will be subject to the charge – Milford Sound, the Tongariro Crossing, Aoraki Mount Cook and Cathedral Cove, which is recognised as one of the world's best beaches – but the government has said it will investigate additional locations.
All the destinations are on public land administered by the Department of Conservation. Milford Sound attracts 1.1 million visitors a year, 90 per cent of whom are from overseas.
The risk is that over-charging foreigners might put them off.
New Zealand already charges non-residents more to use the huts on its Great Walks, which are multi-day hiking trails through some of its most scenic areas. Most international visitors also face a NZ$100 levy when they arrive in the country, which is designed to help cover the costs of providing tourist services.
'It is important to understand the cumulative cost for visitors, and any new charges need to be carefully considered alongside those already paid,' said Greg Thomas, general manager of Tourism Industry Aotearoa. He supports the move to dual-pricing as long as the funds are put back into the attractions.
There are other unanswered questions, not least how New Zealand will levy the charge on visitors to wilderness areas.
'Further work is required to decide the actual implementation and cost,' a spokesperson for Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said. 'As part of this, we will consider approaches taken overseas, such as the use of online booking systems, ticket booths and park passes.' BLOOMBERG
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Straits Times
Italy's Mount Vesuvius closed to tourists as wildfire rages
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox ROME - Italian firefighters on Aug 10 tackled a wildfire on the flanks of Mount Vesuvius, with all hiking routes up the volcano near Naples closed to tourists. The national fire service said it had 12 teams on the ground and six Canadair planes fighting the blaze, which has torn through the national park in southern Italy since Aug 8. Reinforcement firefighters were on their way from other regions and the onsite teams were using drones to better monitor the spread of the fire, the service said on Telegram. 'For safety reasons and... to facilitate firefighting and cleanup operations in the affected areas, all activities along the Vesuvius National Park trail network are suspended until further notice,' the park said in a statement on Aug 9. Nearly 620,000 people visited the volcano's crater in 2024, according to the park. The smoke from the fire could be seen from the Pompeii archeological site, which remained open to tourists however. Experts say European countries are becoming ever more vulnerable to wildfires due to intensifying summer heatwaves linked to global warming. AFP
Business Times
7 days ago
- Business Times
New Zealand joins growing trend to charge foreign tourists more
[WELLINGTON] New Zealand is joining a growing list of countries that charge foreigners more to visit popular tourist sites. The government plans to levy a fee of as much as NZ$40 (S$30.49) on foreign visitors to key natural attractions such as Milford Sound, the majestic fjord reputedly described by the writer Rudyard Kipling as the eighth wonder of the world. The charge, which could be introduced in 2027, will not apply to New Zealand residents. 'New Zealanders have already contributed under broad taxation to run the Department of Conservation,' said David Simmons, emeritus professor in the Department of Tourism at Lincoln University. 'International visitors have not.' Dual-pricing systems, where foreigners pay more than locals to visit national parks, museums and heritage sites, are becoming more popular globally as a means to raise revenue for infrastructure or to control overtourism. US President Donald Trump last month instructed the Secretary of the Interior to consider increasing charges for non-residents at those national parks that already have entrance fees, while some sites in Japan have recently begun introducing higher prices for foreigners, for example, at the newly opened Junglia theme park in Okinawa. Overseas visitors routinely pay more to visit India's Taj Mahal, the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Peru's Machu Picchu citadel. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Some countries use the proceeds to fund conservation, waste management and infrastructure upkeep. Others employ the strategy to reduce stress on urban environments, such as the Italian city of Venice, which is trialling an entrance fee for day-trippers to control crowds during the peak tourist season. In New Zealand's case, creaking infrastructure is the main issue. At the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a track through a World Heritage Area on the central North Island volcanic plateau, thousands of tourists often overwhelm facilities designed to be used by a few hundred people a day. Such overloading has fuelled concern that a bad tourist experience will harm New Zealand's clean, green image and dent an industry that is the country's biggest export earner after dairy products and a key driver of economic growth. The government estimates it will raise NZ$62 million a year from the charge on foreigners, which it will reinvest in the sites to improve the visitor experience. Initially, four sites will be subject to the charge – Milford Sound, the Tongariro Crossing, Aoraki Mount Cook and Cathedral Cove, which is recognised as one of the world's best beaches – but the government has said it will investigate additional locations. All the destinations are on public land administered by the Department of Conservation. Milford Sound attracts 1.1 million visitors a year, 90 per cent of whom are from overseas. The risk is that over-charging foreigners might put them off. New Zealand already charges non-residents more to use the huts on its Great Walks, which are multi-day hiking trails through some of its most scenic areas. Most international visitors also face a NZ$100 levy when they arrive in the country, which is designed to help cover the costs of providing tourist services. 'It is important to understand the cumulative cost for visitors, and any new charges need to be carefully considered alongside those already paid,' said Greg Thomas, general manager of Tourism Industry Aotearoa. He supports the move to dual-pricing as long as the funds are put back into the attractions. There are other unanswered questions, not least how New Zealand will levy the charge on visitors to wilderness areas. 'Further work is required to decide the actual implementation and cost,' a spokesperson for Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said. 'As part of this, we will consider approaches taken overseas, such as the use of online booking systems, ticket booths and park passes.' BLOOMBERG
New Paper
04-08-2025
- New Paper
Meet the Singaporeans bringing char kway teow to Mumbai
One runs a supper club that evokes memories of home-cooked flavours, and the other is billed as the city's first Singaporean street food restaurant. For these two chefs abroad, food is a way to stay connected to their Singaporean identity. Supper club dishes out Singaporean flavours with Indian produce At Mumbai's southernmost tip, crowds gather for a breeze in the thickening heat. Beyond the storied silhouettes of the Gateway of India historical monument and The Taj Mahal Palace luxury hotel, colonial facades stand cheek by jowl with sleek restaurants along buzzing streets. This is Colaba - an island-turned-peninsula - dangling like a charm off the city's chaotic necklace, reaching into the Arabian Sea. Singaporean Renjie Wong opens his apartment in Mumbai once a month for his by-invitation-only supper club, Salon Colaba. PHOTO: RENJIE WONG In the heart of this neighbourhood, Singaporean Renjie Wong opens his apartment once a month for his by-invitation-only supper club, Salon Colaba. A red pineapple lantern glows at the entrance. Inside, the lofty living room is a collage of curiosities from his travels: snakeskin from coastal destination Goa coiled along a driftwood branch, Japanese scripture scrawled on paper, a traditional woven raincoat from north-eastern state Arunachal Pradesh crowning the back of a chair. His decor, like his cooking, is a vivid extension of himself. "Indians and Singaporeans are among the most homesick people in the world, at least when it comes to food," says the 34-year-old Singapore Tourism Board (STB) area director of India and South Asia (Mumbai). "Growing up in Singapore, you take good food for granted because it's everywhere. When we're eating lunch, we're already thinking about what to have for dinner." That appetite drove him first as an eater, and later as a cook. He began honing his skills as an undergraduate in San Francisco, while pursuing a double major in anthropology and Italian literature at Stanford University. "Cooking was a comforting way to deal with homesickness. No matter where I go, my food is tied to my Singaporean roots," he says. Growing up in Singapore, his parents ruled the kitchen, so he rarely cooked. It was not until he moved abroad to study that he began making meals for himself, and fell in love with cooking. For his dissertation research, he spent three summers in Naples, learning to make pasta and sugo (an Italian tomato sauce) from scratch in the Italian city. He describes his culinary style as improvised - a riff on comforting flavours, shaped by global influences and whatever happens to be in the pantry and at seasonal markets. His slow-cooked broths draw out the flavours of the ingredients, much like the rich Cantonese soups he grew up on, he says. The pasta he serves in India, for instance, bears traces of home. Fermented black bean paste, dried scallops and fried shallots are echoes of his family's kitchen, reborn abroad. From pasta kits to supper clubs Mr Wong was working for STB in the United States when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020, and he moved back to Singapore temporarily while working remotely for the statutory board. During that time, he launched Pasta Singapura, selling meal kits of fresh handmade pasta and sauces to raise funds for Myanmar-based non-profit Doh Eain, which focuses on urban regeneration and heritage conservation. Amid the pandemic, the organisation pivoted to offering critical daily support to hard-hit communities in downtown Yangon. When restrictions eased in late 2020, he hosted a seven-course tasting menu built around the single ingredient of fish sauce, from his serviced apartment in Singapore. It was his first experience running a supper club for friends and acquaintances he had met online - and the precursor to Salon Colaba. After returning to the US in late 2021 to work in STB's California office, he launched his maiden supper club, Salon San Francisco, to welcome close friends. Inspired by 19th-century European salons, he hosted meals for around six people every fortnight, envisioning a space where people gathered to share ideas, challenge perspectives and connect. He continued to channel proceeds to Doh Eain. In 2022, when he moved to Mumbai to take up his current role, Salon Colaba was born. A meal comprises six to eight courses, with three to five alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. It opens with a seafood oolong brew: a cold umami mixture of charred jawla (dried Konkani shrimp), anchovies, cuttlefish and scallop, steeped with oolong tea and aged tangerine peel. Snow fungus lends a silken, gelatinous texture. Seafood oolong brew. PHOTO: RENJIE WONG Crudites with sambal. PHOTO: RENJIE WONG With the crudites of Totapuri mango slices and picador chillies come two sambals - one with dried shrimp, balado-style, cooked down with red chillies, wild desi tomato and fried jawla; the other raw and punchy, made from charred bombil (a type of fish also known as Bombay duck) that is lacto-fermented for six weeks with yellow chillies, Tripura pineapple and aromatics, then hand-pounded into a rich, layered paste. Mee suah kueh. PHOTO: RENJIE WONG The mee suah kueh, made from heritage Fuzhou noodles hand-pulled in Sarawak, is rare even in Singapore. Wong serves it with a shallot-rich curry built on a robust rempah, the crisp alliums adding earthy depth. Ulam thunder tea. PHOTO: RENJIE WONG Then comes the show-stealer: ulam thunder tea, a broth entwined in South-east Asian and Hakka traditions, made with 14 aromatic greens from Colaba Market - among them methi (fenugreek leaves), bathua (wild spinach), khatta bhaji (Indian sorrel), kulfa saag (purslane), gondhoraj lime leaf and sawtooth coriander. It fuses the spirit of ulam, the fragrant Malay herb salad, with the depth of Hakka thunder tea. Between courses, conversation flows as easily as the drinks, which include fennel sugarcane wild soda and mulberry mint wild soda. Around six people attend each dinner. When I was there in March, the crowd was a mix of writers, creatives and food entrepreneurs. Himalayan walnut soup. PHOTO: RENJIE WONG Dessert crescendos with coral jelly in Himalayan walnut soup - a nod to Wong's visit to northern state Himachal Pradesh for the last walnut harvest in October 2024 - and slivers of preserved tangerine peel. "My mother makes this for every family gathering," he says. Sublime, nostalgic, quietly stunning - it is the perfect parting note. Meals cost around 5,000 rupees (S$75) a person, with all proceeds going to charity. For more information, go to @saloncolaba on Instagram. Beautician serves Singapore hawker favourites In the Mumbai suburb of Bandra lies Makan Lah, billed as the city's first Singaporean street food joint. On its menu are familiar dishes including chicken rice, kaya toast and chendol. Even before you enter, the aroma of freshly pulled kopi wafts from the kitchen, where Singaporean owner Synthia Liu, who is in her 40s, is at work. Ms Synthia Liu is the founder of Makan Lah, which serves Singaporean street food in Mumbai. PHOTO: POOJA NAIK "It has been my dream to bring Singapore street food to India," says Ms Liu, who spent 15 years in Mumbai as a beautician and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapist before her close friends, devoted fans of her home cooking, suggested she venture into the food and beverage industry. She opened the cafe in the suburb of Khar in June 2024, before moving to its current location in July 2025. Ms Liu first visited Mumbai in 2010 at the suggestion of a student from Hyderabad, who was enrolled in her beauty training programme in Singapore, where she taught nail and eyelash extensions. Seeing potential in Mumbai's nascent hospitality industry, she began conducting beauty and wellness training programmes there, as well as in second-tier cities such as Coimbatore, Ahmedabad and Bhopal. By 2011, she had made Mumbai her home. TCM diets inspire Singapore cooking Ms Liu comes from a family of cooks. In Singapore, her uncle runs a hawker stall serving bak chor mee, while her mother has worked at various hawker stalls for the past three decades. Ms Liu began cooking at age 10, taught by her vegetarian grandmother. Later, her mother taught her how to perfectly simmer hunks of chicken and fish in flavourful broths. In school, she favoured cooking classes. In Mumbai, she found that planning diets for clients based on TCM philosophies played a key role in their treatment. The positive feedback she received inspired her to launch her food venture. But it was not easy for a first-time eatery owner to build the business from scratch. The exterior of Makan Lah. PHOTO: POOJA NAIK The interior of Makan Lah. PHOTO: POOJA NAIK Despite hiring chefs with experience in Chinese restaurants, Ms Liu says they did not know how to cook Singapore food. Many quit before the restaurant's launch. Sourcing the right produce was a challenge, though she adapted - using, for instance, local chillies for chicken rice and native kolam rice for nasi lemak. "Copying a recipe makes you a cook. Here, we're chefs, creating something unique with what we have, without compromising on quality," she says. Social media proved a double-edged sword. A month after its launch, a popular food vlogger reviewed the restaurant online, and the video went viral - drawing large crowds it was not equipped to handle. It took three months for Ms Liu and her team to find their rhythm. Ms Liu says Makan Lah's extensive menu, with around 40 dishes, is like encountering a variety of hawker stalls at once. Hainanese chicken rice. PHOTO: MAKAN LAH As in Singapore, Hainanese chicken rice is a bestseller. The laksa is rich and aromatic with prawn broth and coconut milk, and the chicken gyoza and prawn har gow, served with garlic chilli oil and sambal, are delicate. Nasi lemak, topped with anchovies, peanuts and egg, gets its kick from fiery sambal and comes with a choice of meat: chicken, pork or prawns. There is even a vegetarian char kway teow to suit local palates. Laksa with prawns and chicken. PHOTO: MAKAN LAH And the beverage menu brims with variations of kopi, alongside bubble teas and soothing herbal infusions. Ms Liu has many plans in the pipeline. She intends to launch a brand selling Chinese tea and sauces, a pan-Asian eatery, Makan Lah's second outpost in the commercial suburb Lower Parel, and DIY cooking kits. She also wants to open a cooking academy to teach people to cook Singapore food, as well as support young entrepreneurs who want to set up their own brand or restaurant. Ms Liu says: "India is growing fast and there are far more opportunities for foreigners now than there were a decade ago. Indians are eager to learn. That makes a big difference." Meals cost around 500 rupees a person. For more information, go to @ on Instagram.
