According to the consultancy’s quarterly economic monitor report, the district’s economy shrank 26.4% in the June quarter compared with the corresponding period last year as international tourism ‘‘all but dried up’’.
Provisional GDP fell 4.7% for the year to June, compared with a 2.1% drop nationally.
Consumer spending fell 6.7% in the year to June, a harsher result than the national decline of 2.8%, because of the district’s reliance on overseas visitors.
However, the extent to which domestic visitors flocked to the resort last month was reflected in Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment data showing that spending during the school holidays was only 5% down on July last year.
Tourism spending decreased 14.4% in the year to June, compared with a 12.3% decline nationally, as the closure of the borders and domestic travel restrictions affected visitor activity.
However, the surge of domestic visitors meant Queenstown Lakes was not the worst-affected district. The West Coast was the hardest hit with a 20% fall, and Southland (16%) and Otago (15%) also suffered larger declines in tourism spending.
The number of people receiving the jobseeker support benefit jumped 131% in the year to June, after heavy job losses in the resort’s tourism-dependent businesses, compared with a 19% rise nationally.
In June alone, 554 residents received the benefit, and another 276 received the Covid-19 income relief payment.
The report emphasised the benefit numbers did not include unemployed migrant workers living in the district who were not entitled to such assistance.
In a marked reversal of fortunes for a district that has experienced a prolonged rise in house prices, the average house value fell 2.4% in the year to June, compared with an 11.9% rise for Otago and a 7.5% rise nationally.
However, residential building consents have remained strong, up12%on an annual basis, and more consents (300) were issued in the June quarter than in the same period last year (239).
Queenstown Lakes District Council spokesman Jack Barlow said the council was still examining the report and would be able to comment further next week, but ‘‘its high level description of the impacts of Covid-19 on the local economy and community is in line with our own monitoring of the situation’’.
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Comments
Covid 19 would never have been this big of a disaster but for the sheer incompetence of Europe, the UK and the USA. It is important to keep that in mind.
Also one of the main vectors for the spread of the disease was tourism, and so I am waiting for the tourist industry to explain how they are going to pay for the damage they have caused here, instead of putting their hands out all the time and crying victim.
International tourism is not sustainable. Covid 19 even though it is relatively easy to deal with, has due to incompetence, corruption and greed, shown us where some of the vulnerabilities are. It's no use saying you just need to wait for a vaccine, or until the world deals with it and exterminates it, which will not happen until after the US election, we need to see adjustments being made.
The next virus can come from anywhere, and it can be a thousand times worse than Covid 19.
Is international tourism worth it? When you subtract the cost of Covid 19 to the entire country, how long is it going to take for international tourism to pay for that?
International Tourism has to be profitable for the country, or why have it?
International travel for amusement is not sustainable. Air travel obviously uses fossil fuel and the cruise industry is so bad that the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment did a report on it a number of years ago, saying to be wary of the future of this industry. It is notorious for discharging waste at sea. Yet most of Dunedin’s city council elected reps, even the Green Party Mayor, seem keen to milk this present day cash cow for all it is worth. NZ needs to be transitioning away from tourism. Sustainable food production, arts and crafts, marine and coastal studies and education generally IMO look better long-term options.