New Zealand Nearly Triples Tourist Tax for Foreign Visitors
New Zealand announced on Tuesday an increase in its International Visitor Conservation and Tourist Levy (IVL) to NZ$100 ($62) from NZ$35 ($22) starting from Oct. 1 to 'ensure visitors contribute more to public services and high-quality experiences.'...
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Facts
- New Zealand announced on Tuesday an increase in its International Visitor Conservation and Tourist Levy (IVL) to NZ$100 ($62) from NZ$35 ($22) starting from Oct. 1 to 'ensure visitors contribute more to public services and high-quality experiences.'[1][2]
- The non-refundable tourist tax is charged when applying for a New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA) or most visas, with notable exceptions being permanent residents, Australian citizens, and people from many Pacific Island nations.[3][4]
- This comes on top of an increase in tourist visas from NZ$211 ($131) to NZ$341 ($211) also on Oct. 1. Visitors holding passports from dozens of countries, such as the US and Canada, are visa-exempt for three-month stays.[5][2]
- The IVL fee was first introduced in 2019 to ensure tourists help cover the costs associated with tourism in New Zealand, including on infrastructure, services, and the environment.[6][7][8]
- According to the New Zealand government, more than a thousand citizens were consulted on the increase and 93% of the respondents agreed with the IVL hike. Tourist taxes are in place in many other destinations, including France and Italy.[1][8][9]
- This comes as the tourism sector has witnessed a drop following the pandemic, with Stats NZ reporting that data for the year ending June 30 shows that the number of tourists make up around 80% of those before COVID's border closures.[10]
Sources: [1]The Beehive, [2]Bloomberg, [3]Immigration New Zealand, [4]RNZ, [5]CNN, [6]NZ Herald, [7]Al Jazeera, [8]Independent, [9]BBC News and [10]Reuters.
Narratives
- Narrative A, as provided by The Conversation. Destination taxes are the future, as most tourists are indeed willing to pay a levy if it helps improve local infrastructure and promote the sustainable use of local resources. Given that there has been little evidence that such taxes have a negative impact on the flow of visitors, one can only expect them to become more and more common.
- Narrative B, as provided by IATA. It's a matter of fact that New Zealand's travel and tourism industry continues to recover from the COVID pandemic, lagging behind major markets. Therefore, the proposed hikes in visa fees and in the IVL spells disaster for the country's economy as they will make travel to New Zealand more expensive and less attractive, discouraging potential visitors.
