Newly-appointed tourism minister Stuart Nash says he will be going back to Wellington to talk to other ministers about solutions for some of Queenstown Lakes’ current challenges. 

The minister, who replaced Kelvin Davis in the post-election cabinet reshuffle, was in Queenstown yesterday (Wednesday November 18) for talks with district mayor Jim Boult, the council's economic development team, and tourism industry leaders.

Jim said he was "particularly pleased" the minister had chosen to come so soon after being appointed to the role.

Stuart said he'd had a "very constructive conversation" with Jim about employers' struggles to find staff in the absence of people on working holiday visas. 

"I'm going to go back and talk to the minister for immigration and the minister of finance and other colleagues to outline a solution that I think, in the short-term any way, may alleviate a couple of problems the Queenstown [Lakes] district faces," he said.

It was Stuart’s first visit to the district since his appointment as tourism minister.

On Tuesday (November 17) Stuart addressed the Tourism Summit Aotearoa in Wellington and announced one of his goals is to ensure that New Zealanders no longer subsidise international visitors to the extent they have in the past. 

Asked today whether the district’s proposed bed tax could be a way to transfer the cost of tourism from communities to the tourists themselves, he said he had "a lot of thoughts" about that. 

"What I have done, two things, first of all the Tourism Futures Taskforce, which is made up of some incredibly knowledgeable and experienced people in the industry, they're going to give me a report in mid-December. 

"I'll take a good hard look at that, see what their recommendations are. 

"The other thing is I have asked my officials to be innovative in their recommendations to me about how we can better value the tourist experience that international tourists get when they come to this country." 

The visitor levy was on its way to parliament as a private members bill before being shelved when COVID-19 struck. 

Earlier in the day, Stuart had outlined plans to ban international tourists from hiring campervans which are not self-contained. 

Tourists defecating on the side of the road is not part of New Zealand's global brand, he said. 

"And I don't think they are the sort of tourists New Zealanders want to see in our country." 

He said New Zealand will welcome tourists from across the economic spectrum, but will target high spending visitors. 

"I think what we do as Kiwis, is we undervalue the offering we have. I'm not saying we're going to asset-test everyone who wants to buy a ticket to New Zealand, but what I am saying is if we're spending taxpayers' money marketing New Zealand . . . that spend should be targeted at the high-end tourists." 

He said New Zealand's global brand was at an all-time high due to prime minister Jacinda Ardern and the country's handling of the coronavirus, and plenty of people will want to come here once the borders reopen. 

PHOTOS: Queenstown App