The group looking to make changes around tourism in Milford Sound has no plans to cap numbers visiting the area and is not targeting high-end tourists.
But more private vehicles have headed to the tourism jewel in recent months.
The Milford Opportunities Project is set to deliver its findings in the middle of next year. Director Chris Goddard presented some details about the project’s work to a Southland District Council meeting this week.
Mr Goddard said the project continued working on various ideas on how to protect the world-class experience of visiting Milford Sound. There had been a fear too many tourists would make the site unmanageable and destroy the Milford Sound experience.
One suggestion was to charge international tourists to visit Milford Sound.
He said observations by operators recently were there had been a reduction of buses on the road to Milford, with a subsequent increase in private vehicles.
One plan to control crowding was to not allow international tourists to drive private vehicles through to Milford, and instead put them on "hop-on, hop-off" buses.
Bus services could be streamlined to control the current 11am-3pm bottleneck in the small settlement.
Mr Goddard said one way to encourage that was for different fees — between $90 and $120 — for different times to visit Milford. The project group was not looking at putting a cap on visitors.
In 2019, 882,000 people visited Milford Sound. More than 80% were international tourists.
Cr Jaspreet Boparai asked if there was a priority to try to attract high-end tourists.
Mr Goddard said Milford Sound was a world-class experience which should be enjoyed by everybody and there were no plans to target certain sectors. There could be risks in not having a cap, but at this stage that was the group’s policy.
Most tourists visited in summer, spring and autumn, with just a few in winter.
Cr Derek Chamberlain said the plan was bound to get push-back from companies in Queenstown.
Many visitors did a one-day round trip to Milford from Queenstown.
Half the tourists who arrived in New Zealand went to Queenstown and a third of those went to Milford.
Mr Goddard said the project was looking at working with Destination Queenstown and talking to tourism operators in the town.
Cr Chamberlain also asked where the government stood on the project.
Project staff were to meet Conservation Minister Tama Potaka next week. Mr Goddard said it would then be known what the new government thought about the project.
