Fears the proposed Fiordland monorail would take tourists away from Te Anau is a serious concern held by some resort residents.
Leona McCracken, who owns the Olive Tree Cafe in the town's main street with her partner, said while she was not against development, she was against the 43km monorail proposed by Riverstone Holdings Ltd which was part of the Fiordland Link Experience.
''It will be the small operators who will suffer,'' she said yesterday, and added the proposal had the potential to ''cut Te Anau out''.
She said some tourists were under the impression the monorail would ''pull up right beside Te Anau'' but at 30km out of the town, ''it's not going to come anywhere near Te Anau''.
She said she had heard the potential cost of the journey and held concerns about whether it would be economically viable.
A Department of Conservation report, dated December 2011, noted potential ''flow-on'' effects of the proposal's activities on towns in the area were ''beyond the scope of considerations to be made by the Minister of Conservation''.
The Fiordland Link Experience's website said the monorail would pull up beside a terminus at Te Anau Downs which would include a restaurant or cafe, visitor information centre, tourism operator kiosks and public toilets.
The experience would begin in Queenstown with a catamaran trip across Lake Wakatipu, before an all-terrain vehicle trip to the first terminus at Kiwi Burn, with the monorail leading to Te Anau Downs.
When the then conservation minister, Kate Wilkinson, visited Te Anau in July last year she was confronted by 100 protesters, many holding signs showing they were against the proposal because of what it could do to the town.
Te Anau resident Sonja James held a sign which read ''Don't make Te Anau a ghost town'' and at the time told the Otago Daily Times she feared for the town's future should the proposal go ahead.
''I've put a lot into this town and we don't want this to become a ghost town like Route 66 in America,'' she said last July.
''If it goes ahead, that's our jobs and livelihoods down the gurgler.''
Destination Fiordland, the regional tourism organisation for the Fiordland area, was unable to comment on the proposal because it has members who supported the proposal and others who did not.
The Save Fiordland group, which opposes the monorail, has not ruled out the costly option of appealing the decision if the monorail is approved.
