It’s Tuesday, the first working day after Labour Weekend, and the week’s argument is about who pays for the visitors. Here’s what’s moving.
More than 100 mayors put their names to a $220 million a year ask for tourism GST
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown took out a full-page advertisement in Saturday’s Weekend Herald asking the Government to return about $220 million a year to councils to cover the local cost of hosting visitors, the Herald reported. The advertisement is signed by Brown and backed by more than 100 mayors, among them Wellington’s Andrew Little, Christchurch’s Phil Mauger, Queenstown Lakes’ John Glover and Rotorua’s Tania Tapsell, along with council chief executives and tourism industry leaders.
The arithmetic is simple and deliberately so. The advertisement says central government collects about $10.5 billion a year in tourism-related revenue, including $4.4 billion of GST on tourism spending in the year to March 2025, while councils get no direct income from visitor spending. It asks for 5 percent of that GST, rising as the visitor economy grows, and promotes a New Zealand Tourism Funding Charter for a long-term national approach to infrastructure, services, events and destination marketing.
Two things are worth noticing. A GST share needs no new tax, which makes it an easier ask than the Auckland bed-night levy Brown has pushed before, a 2.5 to 3 percent charge expected to raise about $27 million a year that would need a law change. And it lands eleven days before the 7 November election, as parties settle what they will promise the regions. The $220 million is a claim on existing revenue, so any party that agrees to it is agreeing to spend it somewhere else less.
Stat of the day
5%
The share of the $4.4 billion a year of GST on tourism spending that the mayors want returned to councils, which is where the $220 million comes from. (NZ Herald)
Source: NZ Herald
Banks expect the OCR to rise to 3 percent tomorrow, with the dollar below US60 cents
All the major bank economists now expect the Reserve Bank to lift the Official Cash Rate by 25 basis points to 3 percent at 2pm tomorrow, its third rise in a row, interest.co.nz reported. As of Friday, Brent crude was US$112.50 a barrel and the New Zealand dollar was below US60 cents and at about AU81 cents. ASB’s Mark Smith said the rise was roughly 90 percent priced in by markets. ASB and Westpac both see the rate reaching 3.5 percent by February.
For visitor businesses the decision cuts two ways. Every operator carrying debt on vehicles, vessels or buildings pays more, and domestic travellers already paying more for fuel and fares get another reason to stay cautious. The other side is the currency. A dollar this weak makes New Zealand cheaper for Australians and Americans to book, and BNZ’s Stephen Toplis argued the weak dollar, not oil, is what should worry the Bank most. Tomorrow is a Monetary Policy Review rather than a full Statement, so there will be no updated forecasts, and it is the last decision before the election.
Source: interest.co.nz
Auckland’s waterfront could get a 32-metre wheel before Christmas, and the neighbours object
Skyline Attractions applied on 16 October to run a 32-metre wheel on the Queens Wharf Breastworks promenade near the Downtown Ferry Terminal, RNZ reported this morning, citing Newstalk ZB. Tātaki Auckland Unlimited says it is exploring the wheel as a summer activity on the Quay Street Promenade, part of a plan to open the Central Wharves to the public for the first time, and its director of destination Annie Dundas said it could open before Christmas. The plan has 24 gondolas carrying up to 144 people, runs 10am to 10pm, and includes a cultural centre developed with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. It still needs consents.
Heart of the City’s Viv Beck welcomed it as a draw for visitors and locals. Residents of a Quay Street apartment, whose home would sit little more than 32 metres from the wheel, have asked the council to reject it. Temporary wheels are a well-worn way for a city to test whether a stretch of waterfront will hold people, and a summer trial is a cheaper answer than a permanent build. The constraint is the calendar: consents in time for a December opening leave very little room for objections to be heard.
Source: RNZ
Blue Spring got through Labour Weekend, and a councillor still wants it closed
South Waikato locals are pleased visitors seem to have heeded calls to reconsider visiting Te Waihou Blue Spring near Putāruru over the long weekend, RNZ’s Morning Report said today, and Tīrau ward councillor Kerry Purdy has renewed the call for a temporary closure until the site’s problems are fixed. The council says more than 100,000 people have visited since last year, and numbers have more than doubled since the walkway fully reopened in July 2025. The trouble is cars parked in no-parking zones on State Highway 28, rubbish left in the composting toilet, and the cost to ratepayers of traffic control and portaloos each summer.
The council has not backed a closure. It ran extra toilets, bins and traffic management for the long weekend and asked buses and large vehicles to stay away. The longer fix is the $675,000 from the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy announced last month, which may pay for a bigger car park on Leslie Road, new toilets and park-and-ride, with the council and Ngāti Raukawa still deciding which. Blue Spring is the clearest current case of a free attraction found by social media faster than its car park can be built, and it is the kind of site the mayors’ GST argument above is about.
Christchurch gets its non-stop Singapore service back tomorrow
Air New Zealand’s direct Christchurch to Singapore service starts tomorrow, the first of three new international routes from Christchurch, with Tokyo Narita following from 28 November and Perth from 30 November. The airline last flew Christchurch to Singapore in 2020. Chief executive Nikhil Ravishankar called the three routes a deliberate step to reconnect Christchurch directly to major hubs in Asia.
For the South Island that means a second carrier on a route Singapore Airlines already flies, and a one-stop connection into Europe and India that does not route through Auckland. Read with yesterday’s Western Sydney launch, Air New Zealand is adding international doors while carrying fewer passengers overall. The routes it chooses to open in a year of US$110 oil say where it expects the demand to hold.
Source: Air New Zealand
Coming up
- 28 October: Reserve Bank OCR decision at 2pm, and Air New Zealand’s first Christchurch to Singapore service
- 1 November: Backcountry Hut Tickets move to DOC’s online booking system
- 4 November: Tourism Summit Aotearoa and the NZ Tourism Awards, Te Pae Christchurch
- 7 November: General election
- 14 November: Contractors start on the Hahei Beach Short Walk reroute
- 28 November: Air New Zealand’s first Christchurch to Tokyo Narita service
- 30 November: Air New Zealand’s first Christchurch to Perth service
- 1 December: Paid parking starts at Cornwall Park, Auckland
- December: Earliest possible opening for the Quay Street waterfront wheel, Auckland, subject to consents
- Early 2027: Westland working group’s Waiho River proposal due to ministers
- 7 April 2027: Air New Zealand’s codeshare with Qantas ends
- 1 July 2027: New Border Processing Levy rates take effect, with arriving cruise passengers paying $7.20
That's today's briefing. The Shoulder Season is back every weekday morning.