New Zealand has announced it will charge tourists fees to access nature sites under controversial new plans that will also see a major overhaul of the remote island nation’s conservation laws, opening more of the territory up to exploitation for business purposes.
Once considered by some to be at the forefront of novel ways to challenge overtourism, New Zealand was praised for viral campaigns using gentle humour to dissuade visitors from following the crowds launched in 2023. But the southwest Pacific nation appears to be changing track.
With the country facing a demographic crisis and prolonged economic contraction, pro-tourism marketing in early 2025 was widely ridiculed for making the country sound like it was holding a closing-down sale. Now the government has promised to make further concessions “in the spirit of saying yes to more jobs, more growth and higher wages”, according to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Part of the changes will apply fees, predicted to be applicable from 2027, for overseas visitors when they go to wilderness areas such as Aoraki Mount Cook, Cathedral Cove/Te Whanganui-a-Hei, Milford Sound and Tongariro Crossing. The charges are likely to be between NZ$20 and NZ$40 (€10 to €20) per person.
Some locals have complained that infrastructure and services cannot keep up with tourist numbers in remote parts of the country. The tourist charges at sites Luxon has described as “truly special to New Zealanders” will raise around NZ$62m annually – a sum that will go back into these areas and, according to conservation minister, Tama Potaka, enable New Zealand to “keep investing in the sites that underpin so much of our tourism sector”.
The entry levies come on top of increased visa costs introduced in October 2024 that almost tripled the NZD $35 (€19.6) NZeTA (New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority) charge, taking it up to NZD $100 (€56).
Expensive perhaps, but so far, so normal, since the charges seem in line with tourist taxes and access fees being introduced in many destinations around the world, from Japan’s Mount Fuji to Hawaii’s beaches, and Venice’s historic centre.
But it is the relaxation of regulations governing how some natural sites are exploited that is causing some concern. Following 2024 legislation that permits the fast-tracking of mining projects and rural developments, the government is also looking to undo protections that restrict businesses from killing wildlife, at the same time as axing climate and conservation policies. The ensuring NZ$102 million in savings have been slammed as a “war on nature” by environmental group Forest and Bird and as a “Burn, baby, burn” attitude by Green politician Chlöe Swarbrick.
