Paradigm paralysis in paradise

The tourism boom is an invitation not an invasion,  Vaughn Crowther writes.

You realise your life has become too busy when a moment spent reflecting feels like a guilty indulgence. There's a Talking Heads song (Once In a Lifetime) that always gives me pause for thought: ''And you may ask yourself,/Well, how did I get here?''

It was blasting through the speakers as we crested the Haast Pass on a road trip. My friends and family recently drove a camper van from Queenstown to Christchurch and back over three days.

Having the capacity for introspection is a distinctly human trait; having the time to indulge it is a benefit of modern society. It is the cheap and reliable access to potable water, food and shelter that allows us time to focus our daily efforts away from a hand-to-mouth existence.

We have the audacious pioneers of the past to thank for this; those who challenged the status quo and chose to pursue a higher standard of living. It is our public infrastructure that underpins a quality of life far beyond that of our predecessors.

So, as a public works engineer, I often revisit this purpose. Am I providing society the time and capacity to pursue a higher order of need as described by psychologist Abraham Maslow?

And what has the pursuit of self-actualisation got to do with touring around the South Island in a camper van? Well, at that very moment, all of my physiological and psychological needs were within that camper van and it was highly mobile.

So when you are trying to find a place to stop for the night, have no mobile phone reception and being told in words and actions that you are not welcome, your efforts are focused away from self-actualisation and back to meeting your basic needs.

Our public efforts to fix this seem to be more focused on regulating the problem. As tourist numbers increase at a record pace, are we making the most of the opportunities at hand? I don't think we are. It seems like we are experiencing paradigm paralysis.

What is paradigm paralysis? A paradigm is a set of shared assumptions or way of thinking that defines how we perceive the world. Accepted paradigms allow us to collectively understand how the world works. But when problems fall outside our set of assumptions we can become stuck in a state of paradigm paralysis.

A famous example was the fast-held belief that cholera was spread through ''miasma'' (the odour of human waste). Sir Joseph William Bazalgette spent many years convincing society that it was contaminated drinking water causing the spread of cholera. The ensuing sewerage system he built for London saved tens of thousands of lives.

By day 3, we came to appreciate that many free and independent tourists are simply on their own pursuit of self-actualisation. The promise of a truly individual and unique experience is what draws them to New Zealand. They do not come here to deliberately make a mess nor to be killed or kill others on the road. They are operating within their own paradigm of reality. It must come as a shock when their paradigm and those of residents rub against each other creating tension and conflict.

Unless addressed in a way that appeases both sets of assumptions of the world, we will forever be seen to be failing in each other's eyes.

We obviously had plenty of free time to ponder these concepts. But we had the benefit of operating within both paradigms at the same time. We even came up with some simple ideas to address the problems:

•Define a framework of service standards for camper van facilities throughout NZ. We drove through more than 11 different council boundaries and we noticed a variance in facilities and attitudes towards camper vans.

•Lift the quality of rest areas along key routes. For a camper van tourist, the road is not just functional, it is the destination.

•Sell an ''all you can use'' monthly access pass to these tourist facilities at the point of major outlay. Much like when you purchased that European rail pass before you left on your OE - the feeling of travelling for ''free'' represented good value when all you had was a backpack.

•Use this new revenue to create a contestable fund for communities to invest in tourist infrastructure. If it is allocated on the volume of camper vans, then the incentives will shift to one of welcoming camper vans, as opposed to running them out of town.

The key message I want to get across is not a focus on the suggestions above, but the way in which we came up with them. There are no barriers to solutions, other than those we have created ourselves. The tourism boom is an invitation not an invasion. I challenge you all to change your thinking!

-Vaughn Crowther is chairman of the Otago-Southland Branch for the Institute of Public Works Engineers Australasia (IPWEA NZ) and an infrastructure adviser for Rationale based in Arrowtown.