Large numbers of visitors to this region are nothing new, but many Queenstown Lakes residents believe there are currently too many tourists in this region.

Asking questions about the subjective values around tourism and visitor numbers is one aspect of widening the debate around ‘overtourism’, Shaping Our Future (SOF) executive officer John Glover says.

A “small but thoughtful” crowd gathered in Wānaka last week to discuss some of these issues at a SOF facilitated workshop.

Read more: ‘Too much tourism’? - workshop will investigate

John told the Wānaka App the group identified the usual economic and environmental impacts of tourism, and was able to look more deeply at the social impacts.

“There’s a sense of loss of control or lack of connection with place, [when] places you usually go get degraded,” he said.

It is timely to have this conversation, says SOF executive officer John Glover. PHOTO: Supplied

While the Queenstown Lakes community loves to share the region with a diversity of cultures (and many residents started out as tourists), ‘over tourism’ describes what it feels like when it’s not working well, he said.

A recent Tourism New Zealand survey found that 62 percent of Queenstown Lakes residents believed there was too much tourism in their community - making this region unique.

“...People feel we’ve got enough or too many visitors. The rest of the country is basically asking for more tourism,” John said.

“We’re trying to define how tourism can be managed better. It’s a big challenge and a lot of these questions have been asked before.

“All these things people are describing can be managed. There are places all around the world that are managing the sort of impacts we are talking about.”

A key challenge is “how to describe the level at which an intervention is needed,” he said.

There was a small but thoughtful crowd at the recent session. PHOTO: Supplied

John said there has been a lot of “armchair commentary” about Amway China bringing 5,000 delegates to Queenstown, yet crowds of 45,000 people are welcome at the Wānaka A&P Show.

“That’s different. Why is it different?”

John said a lot of things are “really subjective”, and people may “see an impact that may not be a reality”.

“We’re keen to reach out and ask these questions of our migrant communities and our youth - we will get different perspectives.”

John encouraged people to take part in an online survey for people who didn’t attend the workshop and would like to have a say.

Local tourism and hospitality businesses have provided gift vouchers worth more than $5,000 to encourage people to participate in the discussion around what’s good and what’s not when it comes to visitor numbers.

There is also a competition for younger members of the community asking them to send an image or video of what’s good ( ) and one that represents ( ). Entries can be submitted by direct messaging them to Shaping our Future on Facebook before the end of September.

The images will provide a visual catalogue to supplement the output of the workshops and the online survey, John said. 

John said the ongoing tourism discussion is timely, and the results will feed into and inform work to be done by Queenstown Lakes District Council, Lake Wānaka Tourism, and Destination Queenstown later this year.