On Friday, Labour’s spokesman for economic development, including regional development, David Clark, and its tourism spokesman, Kris Faafoi, were in North Otago visiting a trouble spot for freedom campers.
The pair were at Kakanui’s Campbells Bay meeting residents and freedom campers. Both men understood the pressure councils were under with only ratepayer income to pay for tourist infrastructure, and said diversification of revenue gathering was needed.
Last year, the Waitaki District Council introduced a freedom camping bylaw which came into effect on October 21.
The Otago Daily Times reported last year an estimated 12,000 campers spent a night at Campbells Bay between October 2015 and April 2016, creating a situation some Kakanui residents described as "monstrous".
Mr Faafoi said people in Kakanui and elsewhere throughout New Zealand were becoming frustrated with the situation and this posed a risk to the "welcoming" tourism brand New Zealand was known for.
He proposed a levy be paid by international visitors by attaching a nominal fee to their tickets, and the money raised by that levy given to a fund that councils could access to pay for tourist amenities.
The levy meant ratepayers would no longer be the only source of income for councils, he said. While not every tourist was a freedom camper, he did not expect the scale of the levy to scare off anyone from visiting New Zealand.
Mr Clark, MP for Dunedin North, an electorate which covers the southern part of North Otago, said historically New Zealanders had always camped in their own vehicles for short trips and that did not cause a problem with the existing infrastructure.
"The problem has developed as the scale of the tourism industry has grown with mobile camping."
