A loop road around the South Island effectively establishes a race track which means places like Golden Bay become, in effect, mere pit stops for food and fuel. If the proponents had bothered to heed what Golden Bay s tourist operators actually want they would find, if a recent straw poll of Golden Bay tourism operators is any indication, overwhelming opposition to the road. Tourism is the second largest industry in the area after dairying, and the local people are surely the people who would know how best to encourage tourists to their area. The overall thrust of Golden Bay s tourism promotion has been on encouraging people to stay longer, spending on accommodation, meals, adventure experiences and local produce and craft. Destination tourism is more sustainable in the long term.
More local people make more money that way.
So if it is a business argument that the proponents are pushing, one wonders whose businesses they represent because it s certainly not those enterprising locals who have invested time and energy into developing a sustainable tourism industry that depends on the preserving the natural environment. Providing access to otherwise inaccessible areas is another argument that the proponents have used. But adding approximately 170 km to the road network will not significantly enhance the range of forest and mountain driving experiences in New Zealand, which together stretch thousands of kilometres. It s one of the features of modern tourism planning that many of these drives now sport easy short walks, including ones accessible to wheelchairs, that provide forest and mountain experiences of the type often restricted to hardy trampers. Another aspect of this debate which should not be overlooked is that businesses and communities in Murchison, Reefton and Makarora, which have developed their own tourism momentum, will undoubtedly lose out if tourists are directed away from them by these roads.