Waitaki Member of Parliament Jacqui Dean believes the industry needs to carry out tougher checks on drivers hiring cars.
''If drivers are inexperienced or lack the skills to handle the driving conditions in this country, then they should not be behind the wheel,'' she said in a press release yesterday.
''We can't allow visitors to arrive in New Zealand, get behind the wheel and drive off down the highway without adequate support and training.
''And that's where rental car companies must step up.''
The chief executive of the Rental Vehicle Industry Association, Barry Kidd, told the Otago Daily Times yesterday it was the Government - by signing the United Nations Convention on road traffic - that determined who could drive on New Zealand roads.
He warned any change to the way overseas licences were handled in New Zealand would have implications for New Zealanders wanting to drive in other countries.
Ms Dean considered rental car companies needed to ensure drivers could handle New Zealand's ''hilly, narrow and windy'' country roads and they should provide training and information about road rules.
Ms Deans' comments follow revelations in the Queenstown Coroner's Court last week that the 20-year-old Chinese driver responsible for the death of two motorcyclists on the Lindis Pass in 2012 had never operated a right-hand-drive car or driven on the left side of the road and was unlikely to have driven faster than 40kmh.
Rental operators did not knowingly hire vehicles to people they did not consider safe to drive, Mr Kidd said, and he considered it would be ''very difficult'' to determine how much driving experience tourists had.
Some rental vehicle operators went to great lengths to provide information.
''Some even go to the extent of giving people a fact sheet which they get them to read in their own language and sign to say they have an understanding of some of the basic rules of the road.''
He pointed out tourists were not only travelling in rentals but also bought or borrowed cars.
''It's wider than just rental vehicles.''
Mr Kidd described overseas tourists having crashes as a ''small subset'' of those who hired cars and most returned their vehicles without incident.
A group of Chinese tourists were ''lucky'' to escape injury after crashing at the intersection of State Highway 83 and Livingstone-Duntroon Rd near Kurow on Sunday.
Kurow police Constable Craig Bennett said the three tourists had been navigating their way to the Elephant Rocks using a mobile phone app which did not give them enough warning of a left turn.
In a rental car, they took the SH83 and Livingstone-Duntroon Rd corner too fast, rolled down the bank and landed 4m below road level at 3.15pm.
''They were very lucky no-one was coming the other way,'' Const Bennett said.
No injuries resulted.
- Additional reporting Rebecca Ryan
