The Queenstown Lakes District Council this year requested $5 million from the fund generated by the International Visitor Levy (IVL), the $100 fee charged to most tourists entering New Zealand.
A report summarising the council’s submission to the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) for a council workshop this week showed the council asked for $2m for a footpath and cycleway along Wānaka’s lakefront, $2m for a range of projects to manage the pressures of freedom camping in Queenstown and Wānaka, and $1m to maintain ‘‘end-of-network roads’’ including Mount Aspiring Road.
However, the report said initial feedback from MBIE was that if any funding was approved, it would only be for a small subset of the projects applied for.
Queenstown Lakes deputy mayor Quentin Smith described the situation yesterday as a ‘‘serious frustration’’, before saying the government was misapplying funds generated by the IVL.
‘‘On any metric, whether you choose visitor nights in our district, the number of issues we have, and the infrastructure needs we’ve got, we should be getting a significant share of the IVL.
‘‘The IVL should be sticking to its core principles, which were to provide for conservation and biodiversity, and for visitor infrastructure needs.
‘‘My personal view is that the government are misappropriating the money, and seem to be putting some of it back into the general coffers, and investing a fairly significant amount in tourism promotion, which in my view is not the purpose of the levy at all,’’ Cr Smith said.
MBIE tourism and hospitality policy director Saskia Vervoorn said no decisions on future IVL spending had been made.
Ministers of Finance, Conservation and Tourism and Hospitality jointly allocated revenue from the levy, Ms Vervoorn said.
‘‘All IVL revenue is spent on tourism and conservation.
‘‘The government’s IVL investments to date support increasing visitor numbers to maximise the economic contribution tourism makes to New Zealand, or enhancing the visitor experience, managing the impact on the conservation estate and retaining public consent to allow for continuous growth.’’
MBIE data shows that in 2025, the International Visitor Levy generated $179m.
In February, Destination Queenstown and Lake Wānaka Tourism chief executive Mat Woods said more than half of all international holiday visitors to New Zealand include Queenstown Lakes in their itinerary.
Cr Smith tied the lack of IVL funding directly to the rates paid by residents of the district.
‘‘We clearly have a need for visitor infrastructure, and we’re just not getting any share of it [the IVL].
‘‘In the absence of IVL funding, it’s the ratepayers that are forced to continue to subsidise the costs of accommodating tourists,’’ Cr Smith said.
