Tourism and Hospitality Minister Matt Doocey, accompanied by Southland MP Joseph Mooney, made a whirlwind trip to Te Anau and Milford Sound yesterday (25 Jan) to meet not only key tourism players including Milford Opportunities, NZTA Downer Alliance, Visit Fiordland & the Regional Tourism Organisation (Great South), but also found time to talk to some tourism operators and locals.

The newly appointed Tourism and Hospitality Minister said he was taking the opportunity to travel around the country on a fact finding mission while Parliament was in recess.

He said that while the country's books would be running in deficit for "quite a few years", necessitating the government to cut its cloth accordingly, tourism was a big export earner and the government was looking to see how it could support sustainable growth within the sector.

Doocey said as tourist numbers started to bounce back, it would be important to "get the flow of toursits right to ensure that we're managing the demands, not only peak seasons, but shoulder seasons and off peak seasons."

He said there had been a considerable amount of work over the years done on the Milford Opportunities Plan , a project tasked with exploring ways to do tourism differently in Milford Sound and the Milford Road, but questioned not only its timeframe and $12-13m price tag but also some of its suggestions and directions.

"I think at times the direction can be a bit incoherent. We need to actually be very clear. What is the plan trying to achieve," Doocey said.

"For me as Minister for Tourism it's about how we enable tourism, to ensure that we get valuable tourists coming in to Milford and actually they get a quality experience."

"If you look at the suggestion that we ban cruise boats in Milford. That's something that I would not look to support, or the banning of fixed wing planes."

And while recognising that there were constraints with the number of current carparks in Milford Sound, Doocey said that people should still be given a choice about how to get there.

"There'll be some people who choose to drive and would like to park next to the terminal. And if there is some ability to do that with parking, that can be managed."

"Equally, those who would like to park at the opening of the national park should be the ability to do park and ride."

"And there could be better options for those who choose to jump on a bus from Te Anau [or] Queenstown as well." he said.

Milford Sound

Doocey said that he and Conservation Minister Tama Potaka would be considering the final Milford Opportunities report when it was presented to them in June.

The minister also said the issue of the National Park management plan, which was 6 years overdue for review, had been raised on his visits.

"It's something that I'll be taking up directly with the conservation Minister Tama Potaka"

"I think we need to ensure that the government understands the value of tourism and appreciates the value that it brings to conservation, as well."

"I see it as complementary. And that's the conversation I'll be having with the minister, he said.

He said the issues around National Park concessions had also been raised both at his Fiordland meetings and in other parts of New Zealand where there was strong tourism operations.

"It's an area that does concern me."

"I think we need to look at tourism in New Zealand. It is largely driven by private business and private capital."

"We need to make sure that we give our tourism operators certainty so they can invest in their tourism operations."

"Because the reality is tourism operators bring much value jobs and incomes into local communities, as we see in regional and rural New Zealand.

The lack of workers and worker accommodation had also been raised with the Minister.

He said ensuring the tourism and hospitality sectors had a trained local workforce, access to skilled migration and working visas and staff housing would be a priority area for him.