International tourism in NZ - what's it worth?

The Minister of Tourism, who also happens to be the Prime Minister, likes to go on about how valuable tourism is to the New Zealand economy. He is correct that tourism contributes a substantial amount to the economy - $23.4 billion was spent on tourism in 2012[1], contributing $6.2 billion or 3.3 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

It is interesting to note, however, that $13.8 billion of the $23.4 billion spent was done so by domestic tourists, a fact that John Key may have forgotten to mention on his various jaunts overseas to promote New Zealand as a tourist destination. Such business has, in my view, a bleak future.

Peak Oil and Climate Change will limit global tourism, placing far greater importance on local tourism. While this will reduce the amount of overseas tourists (and their foreign currency) entering the New Zealand economy, it will also mean that New Zealanders will increasingly spend their tourist dollars within the New Zealand economy. Tourism, much like the rest of the economy, is a sector that should promote the ‘buy local’ ethos.

Indeed, in December 2012, 216,800 New Zealanders travelled overseas. What if these people travelled within New Zealand, spending their tourist dollars in our economy rather than other countries’ economies?

If New Zealand is to prepare itself for the future, it’s high time to invest in sustainable public transport infrastructure that will facilitate not only domestic tourism, but also the efficient, low-carbon transportation of goods and services throughout the country. 

And, while we’re at it, perhaps the Minister of Tourism should save the carbon emissions and spend his tourist dollars in our economy. I haven’t been to Hawaii, but I can certainly provide a few suggestions for lovely beaches in New Zealand!

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[1] “Tourism expenditure includes spending by all travellers, whether they are international, resident householders, or business and government travellers. International tourism expenditure includes spending by foreign students studying in New Zealand for less than 12 months.” Statistics New Zealand (2012). Tourism Satellite Account: 2012. Wellington: Statistics New Zealand. P. 9. Available from www.stats.govt.nz

Speed's greed

Technology was intended to increase our leisure time and in many ways it has, but I'm curious to consider how the notion of leisure is evolving in a technology-saturated society. My assertion is that while technology has made many tasks easier, thus technically freeing us up for more leisure, it has simultaneously altered the expectations we have of our free time. Indeed, I believe that leisure time is no longer about recreation (re-creating oneself internally) but about achieving things externally. As such, I think we have become preoccupied with quantity (external outcomes) rather than quality (internally fulfilling) in terms of our leisure activities.

To further explore this, I'd like to look at tramping, a form of recreation that for me epitomises leisure and re-creation. When tramping I have to slow down to a walking pace, I connect with my surroundings (people, nature etc.), I have to limit my wants to that which will fit inside my backpack and limit my use of technology to the bare essentials (a friend's Emergency Locator Beacon and GPS). Perhaps most importantly however, there is time to think, to ponder and to work through internal processes.

When I was tramping last weekend with a bunch of friends we encountered a group of 'speed hikers'. They arrived at the hut at 10pm to cook up some dehydrated meals before heading back out into the darkness to walk a further 2 to 3 hours to their final destination, a hut on the ridge with a stunning view.

The impression I got from these speed hikers was that the aim of their excursion was to walk a long distance in a short amout of time. The fact that they were walking at night and eating dehydrated meals made it seem to me that they were not that fussed about the view nor the quality of the food they ate. Similarly, the speed with which they walked was (in my opinion) not conducive to connecting with their surrounds nor with themselves as individuals.

While I understand that not everyone sees the world in the way that I do (which is great!) and nor does everyone have the same aspirations as me (which is also great), I just think that this example of the speed hikers illustrates the way that leisure is changing to become more focussed on externally apparent 'outcomes'. It seems to me that leisure and recreation is increasingly about how much one can fit into one's free time which seems the antithesis of what it should be about.

My concern is that the speed with which we can achieve things in today's world as a result of technology is having a negative effect on the way we live our lives. As Ronald Wright has written in "A Short History of Progress", we are running 21st Century software on hardware that has not been upgraded for millennia. In other words, the world is changing at an exponential rate (thanks in the most part to technology), yet humans are still working with the same brains that we have had for centuries.

It's time to make some time to disconnect from technology and reconnect with ourselves, our friends, family and nature.