(TAN): New Zealand’s ever-growing tourism industry is damaging its environment and its most popular landscapes that visitors come to experience, a parliament report has warned, as per reports.
The report from parliamentary commissioner for the environment, Simon Upton said that environmental pressures are expected to rise consistently with the size of the tourism sector that could “grow two or four times greater by 2050”. International visitor numbers that are nearly four million, could grow to 10 to 13 million each year by 2050, reports said.
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Upton reportedly said the numbers have impacted infrastructure as well as the environment, while many of the qualities that tourists associated with New Zealand were in jeopardy.
“The sheer numbers of people are eroding the sense of isolation, tranquility and access to nature that many overseas tourists seek when visiting New Zealand. We need to ask: ‘Are we in danger of killing the goose that laid the golden egg’?” he was quoted by The Guardian as saying.
The areas that were hit by the tourism growth according to the report are – visitor density and loss of natural quiet, water quality degradation, solid waste generation and management, infrastructure development and landscape modification, biodiversity loss and biosecurity risk, and greenhouse gas emissions.
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Crowded roads, visitors thronging touristy sites, and serpentine queues for selfies at popular New Zealand attractions had become a common sight, according to reports. Upton reportedly said popular places such as the Tongariro Crossing, Mount Roy and Mount Cook were in danger from overtourism.
He said the travel industry had evaded environmental inspection that other sectors such as agriculture and mining are subjected to for too long, reports said.
“We didn’t get to where we are overnight. The phenomenon of crowded sites, crowded skies and crowded parking lots is the result of more than a century’s worth of promotional taxpayer subsidy,” he was quoted by Yahoo News as saying.
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Upton reportedly added that influx of tourists was adding to greenhouse gases from flights and more waste getting into waterways, which in turn was hurting the peace and tranquility of the land.
The report said it only identified the problems and provided an evaluation of the impact tourism had on environment, and that solutions will follow in a later report.
