5 issues New Zealand is lacking as a tourist destination

Viewpoint: It’s coming up to a year given that the coronavirus pandemic shut down intercontinental journey, grounding flights and closing borders all all around the world.

Here in New Zealand, we have been a great deal luckier than most, taking pleasure in the independence to journey domestically. We have been encouraged to get greater acquainted with our possess backyard – and several of us have realised what we have listed here at property quite effortlessly rivals the locations we as soon as flocked to overseas.

Besides, there are a couple of factors we could do better. I’ve been getting a superior challenging think about what it is we’re lacking – what it is that tourism hotspots in Asia and Europe have that we never.

Right here are the 5 items New Zealand still requirements to be thought of a best desired destination.

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1. A decent rail community

Guaranteed, our purely natural miracles are unrivalled. But unless of course you have a auto, it’s complicated to entry them.

I reside in central Wellington and never personal a automobile. Just lately I prepared a weekend absent in Martinborough, pondering I would be equipped to simply catch a educate to the Wairarapa and again.

Then I uncovered the weekend timetable was extremely confined, with only two trains managing every day. In the close, I made a decision it would be much easier to lease a auto, for the sake of versatility. But as Martinborough is a well-known wine desired destination, I was shocked there weren’t extra solutions for non-motorists.

New Zealand isn’t far too dissimilar to Japan, geographically speaking. But there’s 1 large distinction – it’s so substantially much easier to get all around Japan, many thanks to its outstanding rail method and large-pace bullet trains that can get you from Tokyo to Osaka – two major cities about 500km aside – in just two-and-50 % several hours.

Now, I’m not stating we require bullet trains zooming the size and width of Aotearoa. But the point we don’t have a trusted community connecting our metropolitan areas and vacationer places just seems like a skipped possibility.

2. Extra inexpensive domestic flights

As we really don’t have trains, flying is our most effective possibility when it will come to domestic vacation (unless of course you are ready to shell out hrs on the road). But our decisions are minimal – primarily given that Jetstar axed its regional providers at the conclude of 2019.

While Air New Zealand committed to creating much more than 750,000 seats a year accessible for fewer than $50 as aspect of its domestic pricing overhaul again in 2019, it remains costly to fly inside of New Zealand – you virtually have to take care of traveling among the North and South islands like you would an international flight, reserving well in advance and picking your dates strategically to get a great deal.

Pre-pandemic, in some circumstances it would in fact be more affordable to fly to Australia than to a person of our regional airports. And less complicated – travelling from Wellington to Dunedin, from instance, sometimes requires a transit in Christchurch.

On the world wide phase, Air New Zealand is an airline to be happy of – there’s no denying it is 1 of the most effective in the environment. But at home, we never will need all the more bells and whistles. We just have to have to be capable to get all around the place without the need of it costing an arm and a leg.

3. Late evening purchasing

When I imagine of the world’s terrific browsing locations, I imagine of areas like Hong Kong and Dubai, where you can indulge in some retail remedy late into the evening, with malls and retailers remaining open up until eventually at least 10pm.

In most of New Zealand’s centres, the shops are shut by 6pm, leaving our primary streets deserted. Even Business Bay, Auckland’s flashy new retail precinct, only stays open for procuring right until 7pm.

I’ve generally questioned what intercontinental site visitors should feel of us, based mostly on our ghost town-like CBDs following small business several hours. Do we actually want to be thought of as a country that toddles off house to the suburbs at 5pm, and is in bed by 10pm on the dot? I never assume so.

Owning afterwards procuring several hours would aid inject lifetime into our city centres in the evenings, turning them into extra dynamic locations.

4. More winter season gatherings

Unless of course you are into snowboarding or snowboarding, there is not a whole great deal to do in New Zealand in the cooler months. While the summertime months are jam-packed with concerts, festivals and local community gatherings, the wintertime calendar is conspicuously empty.

Seasonality has long been a big difficulty for New Zealand tourism, with hordes of intercontinental tourists arriving in the summer. Although there have been endeavours to motivate travel in the shoulder season, the depths of wintertime stays an unattractive time of yr – the two for visitors, and locals.

Guaranteed, we’re at a drawback – compared with the northern hemisphere, we really do not have the cosy charm of the festive time in the course of our winter months. But I even now imagine there should be much more on present at this time of 12 months.

If we could just distribute out what we by now have throughout the calendar year a little more evenly – the concert events, the food stuff and wine festivals, the literary situations – then perhaps July and August wouldn’t sense so prolonged and unbearable.

5. Towns and towns with a heart

I like New Zealand’s compact towns, with their blink-and-you-skip-it major streets and novelty statues, from Ohakune’s huge carrot to Taihape’s significant gumboot. I actually do.

But what I actually overlook from my abroad travels are cities and towns that have a appropriate centres, like Europe’s well-known squares – spots in which vacationers and locals alike arrive to sit, hold out, and soak up the ambiance.

I can only assume of a handful of locations in New Zealand that have an effortlessly recognisable heart – these kinds of as Dunedin’s Octagon, potentially, and The Square in Palmerston North. But it would be a rare working day (one involving exceptionally superior temperature) where you’d actually see folks having fun with these areas as however they have been Spanish plazas.

We can not do a lot about the city planning of our forebears. But we can get the job done with what we have to discover public areas that could be turned into beating hearts of our cities and towns.

What do you think New Zealand is missing as a location? Enable us know in the comments.