The downside to being a successful tourism destination: Funding the necessary tourism infrastructure?

Abstract

New Zealand has successfully promoted itself to the point of potential over-tourism/peak-tourism with regard to the significant impact that tourism is now having on the country’s infrastructure. An international tourist levy is soon to be implemented, and there is a call for the introduction of a bed-tax, but the latter is not favored by the commercial accommodation sector as it is seen as unequitable and does not conform to New Zealand tax philosophy. This paper presents an alternative funding model (compared to bed-tax) for local governments that uses available tourist-spend data to equitably share the funding costs across all tourist-spend recipients (businesses).