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We might not always like backpackers, but we’d miss them if they never came back (Getty Images)
We might not always like backpackers, but we’d miss them if they never came back (Getty Images)

BusinessNovember 19, 2020

In defence of backpackers

We might not always like backpackers, but we’d miss them if they never came back (Getty Images)
We might not always like backpackers, but we’d miss them if they never came back (Getty Images)

Stuart Nash wants to refocus the tourism industry on high-net-worth individuals. But younger, poorer travellers have much to offer too, writes Alex Braae.

Backpackers and freedom campers are easy groups of people to hate. They drive vans with stupid slogans written on them. They’ve got a reputation – possibly unfair – for white-guy dreadlocks and intermittent showering.

And according to new tourism minister Stuart Nash, they’re shitting in the rivers and they’ve got to go. Speaking to Radio NZ, he said there would be a new focus on “high-net-worth individuals”, and the country would no longer be subsidising the likes of freedom campers. Among the measures he talked about was a ban on hiring non-self-contained vans to tourists. 

One of the biggest groups using these sorts of vehicles to get around is people you’d loosely call backpackers – young people on working holiday visas who want to see as much of the country as they can. They’ve long been considered a problem in the parts of the country hit with over-tourism, particularly because they put pressure on facilities also used by locals. 

Nash asked, “Do you think that we want to become a destination for those freedom campers and backpackers who don’t spend much, and leave the high-net-worth individuals to other countries?”

The problem is, making those types of tourists pariahs would end up being self-defeating not only for the tourism industry, but the country as a whole. Because in a whole lot of quite important ways, these types of tourists often are high value, if not people of high net worth. 

Consider the typical experience of a working holiday visa. As the name suggests, the person will spend some time working, and some time on holiday. They’ll almost certainly be spending some or all of that time out in the regions, and the work they do is highly likely to be in the sorts of seasonal employment that doesn’t displace local workers. 

“I think it’s important to remember that youth are high-value travellers,” said Jenni Powell, the chair of the Backpacker Youth and Adventure Tourism Association. Youth isn’t necessarily synonymous with backpackers, but there is a strong correlation between the two. In a typical year, people in that category contributed well over a billion in spending. “They stay longer, they visit more destinations, and they do more activities while they’re here.”

These are the sorts of people who are much more likely to get around New Zealand in a non-self-contained van. They might stay in different places at different times of course too. But for Powell, one of the key points about them is that “as a sector, there’s huge regional dispersal supporting small tourism businesses. Regional dispersal is so important for New Zealand. They connect with our communities and they do respect our environment.” 

A boom in domestic tourism in Queenstown could cushion the damage of the border closure (Photo: Getty Images)

Value isn’t necessarily just an economic picture either. The social and cultural links created by these types of tourists is long-lasting. “They return up to four times in their lifetime, later bringing their families,” said Powell. Perhaps those who come to New Zealand first as smelly backpackers later return as high-net-worth individuals, and if they go somewhere else, they’d likely build an affinity with that place instead. 

Steven Norris, who owns and runs Trips & Tramps in Te Anau, said he personally knows of people who hitchhiked around New Zealand decades ago as young people, who came back recently with plenty of money in the pocket. But he noted that the high cost of living in New Zealand means it is already a naturally expensive place to travel. 

Norris said he often advises people who he comes across travelling on a shoestring budget to come back later when they’re wealthier, travel for less time, and to do more with it. “I would say probably 20% of the people who come to New Zealand come on a pretty tight budget.” He said some of the people travelling in that way do cut corners in a way that annoy locals. 

There was also sympathy from Norris for Nash’s point of view, saying it would be easy to misconstrue the comments as being about seeking “only millionaires and billionaires”. And Norris said a model of tourism that is based on volume above all else was doomed to fail – especially in a year like 2020 in which volume suddenly gets cut off.  

Even so, having the debate about what sort of tourism model New Zealand goes for doesn’t have to involve demonising backpackers. Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins said he was proud that when his city was given the choice about either banning freedom camping, or finding a way to welcome and manage it, the people chose the latter. 

“In some quarters the debate about ‘value versus volume has always been code for prioritising the super-rich. The same arguments about backpackers don’t tend to be made about cruise ship passengers, for example, even though they’re not poles apart in terms of their economic impact,” said Hawkins. 

For Hawkins, the focus for the tourism industry’s future had to be on how to transition it to a zero-carbon world. “Yes, there are certainly environmental impacts of tourism that need to be addressed, from both a climate and biodiversity point of view, but let’s talk about that rather than pretending that chasing fatter wallets will solve it for us.” 

The country currently has a bit of breathing room to figure out what the future of tourism looks like, with the borders remaining closed to all but returning New Zealanders and a few essential workers. But Nash’s intervention this morning suggests the government is very keen on going in a particular direction. People might not always like the backpackers, but it seems certain that we’d miss them if they never came back.

Alex Braae drove a Jucy van around the country over the course of the 2020 election. Jucy had no involvement in the writing of this piece.
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Michael Parekōwhai’s life size astronaut  on the Semi Permanent stage (Photo: Michael Andrew)
Michael Parekōwhai’s life size astronaut on the Semi Permanent stage (Photo: Michael Andrew)

BusinessNovember 17, 2020

Semi Permanent – an exhibition of NZ’s truly phenomenal creativity

Michael Parekōwhai’s life size astronaut  on the Semi Permanent stage (Photo: Michael Andrew)
Michael Parekōwhai’s life size astronaut on the Semi Permanent stage (Photo: Michael Andrew)

With 27 speakers over a 10 hour event, Semi Permanent Aotearoa showed just how much New Zealand’s creative industry has to offer our economic and social rebuild.

It’s a rare thing having 1,000 people in the same room at the same time in 2020. It’s even rarer to have 27 of a country’s most prestigious and talented designers and artists taking the same stage in one day.

But such is the fortune of New Zealand that Semi Permanent was able to go ahead in Auckland in mid-November, showcasing the extraordinary economic and cultural potential of the creative industry in a year that has chilled the sector to its bones.

Semi Permanent has always been a big deal – a preeminent celebration of the success of New Zealand’s artists and designers and why they’re worth investing in. But because of the impact of Covid-19, and the emphasis it’s placed on rebuilding better and smarter, this year’s event carried extra weight. It was free for the first time and organised by Alt Group, Special Group and Auckland Tourism, Events & Economic Development (ATEED).

Dean Poole, co-founder of Alt Group, said Semi Permanent 2020 was specifically crafted to represent the full dazzling spectrum of the industry and its current position at the vanguard of a new and improved economy.

“The goal with that lineup, first and foremost was to represent the diversity of practitioners and creative industries as well as businesses.

“Our hope was to stimulate pathways into the creative industries in the sense of careers, ranging from film and TV all the way through to fashion and product design.”

While the event was naturally influenced by the pandemic, Ben Corban of Alt Group said it was all part of New Zealand’s decades-long plan to lift the creative sector to the economic level of the primary industries.

“We’re a country focused on primary industries; we’re a farming nation and fishing and forestry nation and all those kinds of things,” Corban said. “But the creative sector is growing significantly globally. And it’s a real opportunity for a country like ours that’s considering economic diversification in a meaningful way.

“Globally it contributes about 3% to GDP, and in countries like the UK the value is about NZ$200 billion, which is actually the value of our entire economy.”

Held at Aotea Centre, Semi Permanent’s diverse lineup certainly showed the extraordinary influence the creative sector had on every aspect of New Zealand’s economy, from art galleries and start-ups to giant NZX listed multi-national companies.

Among the ranks were fashion designer Kiri Nathan, artist Lisa Reihana, video game developer Dean Hall and GM of industrial design at Fisher & Paykel Appliances Mike Jensen, each showing their latest work and providing their own take on what it means to ply their unique trade in New Zealand.

Lisa Reihana with hosts (Photo: Jinki Cambronero)

While the nuances of their craft and words were all unique, the speakers seemed to have one sentiment in common: this country has a wealth of talent and was on the cusp of something big.

Iconic kiwi designer Kate Sylvester recounted her brand’s origins and growth through New Zealand fashion’s golden age in the 1990s, which emerged from the economic upheaval of the decade before.

“What we have learned in all this time is that recessions can have an upside. When you have mass unemployment and mass business closures it actually creates opportunity. If people can’t find jobs, creatives start creating.

“The city [Auckland] was a cauldron of creatives… there was a flurry of clothing brands: World, Karen Walker, Nicholas Blanchet and of course, us. We all started up out of nowhere with nothing.”

Because of the ethical and environmental-focused changes in the global industry, Sylvester said New Zealand fashion’s golden age was having something of a renaissance – grounded in commitments to human rights and sustainability, rather than at the expense of them.

Kate Sylvester (Photo: Michael Andrew)

“The fashion industry is going through a reckoning … but luckily we’re an industry receptive to change. We’re finally learning to cooperate in order to address our challenges and nurture out craft back into our process.

“But what really excites me is the new generation of creatives … New Zealand now feels like the 90s are brewing again – another cauldron of creativity is starting to bubble. But for these new creatives, sustainability and diversity are not optional extras. They’re an intrinsic part of their design DNA and that’s the future.”

Although the event featured numerous speakers from across business and tech, there was a distinctive altruistic and artistic ethos to each session, far removed from you might expect at a business leader’s summit. Money and profit were not the focus. This was a day celebrating creativity for the sake of people and the environment.

The focus on social outcomes was emphasised by Pam Ford, GM of economic development at ATEED, who said the creative industry in Auckland was already a massive employer but was poised to grow with the right investment.

“The creative industries in Auckland account for 51% of New Zealand’s creative sector,” she said.

“More than that, it really adds to our cultural and creative capital. And it employs 53,000 people. We call it an advanced industry because it employs highly skilled people who generate more wages. And that’s particularly important in Auckland when we’re looking to address our young and Māori and Pasifika populations. We want to enable those young people into the highly paid jobs you can get in the creative industries.”

UBCO electric motorbikes (Photo: Michael Andrew)

Perhaps one of the most significant themes of the event was incidentally reflected in the line-up itself: the extraordinary value and success of New Zealand’s returning diaspora. A number of Semi Permanent speakers had recently returned from high-profile roles overseas, and their stories and ideas gave an exciting snapshot of what might be possible with the addition of this creative capital.

Jamie McLellan, head of design at Allbirds in San Francisco spoke of his work with the footwear brand (co-founded by fellow New Zealander Tim Brown) and the campaign to create quality, low carbon products out of merino wool and tree fibres.

“We’ve been duped into thinking synthetics are superior, but they’re not,” he said.

“Natural materials offer real hope in the fight against climate change. Everything we do at Allbirds is anchored to the idea of driving carbon out of the industry.”

McLellan also spoke about the company’s investment in regenerative agricultural methods that sequester carbon back into the soil. Regenerative agriculture is another globally booming industry with enormous environmental and economic potential in New Zealand. Its backing by Allbirds was another example of the unique cross-pollination happening between industries – in this case, fashion and agriculture – with a common sustainable goal in mind.

Another speaker and recent returnee was industrial designer Danny Coster who spent 20 years working at Apple. A core member of Sir Jonathan Ive’s team, Coster contributed to the design direction for a wide range of iconic Apple products, including the original iMac and several iterations of iPhone and iPad.

Now living in Taranaki, Coster spoke earnestly of how creativity and human progress is most effectively nurtured through shared experienced and responsibility to the community.

“We’re here to listen and learn, be part of the community, and support the idea of New Zealand being a magnetic brand, the potential for global change and an innovation hub with these types of people, all contributing and to be in a relationship with community, land and sea.”

However, it wasn’t all just rosy celebration of New Zealand’s progress and creative success. Auckland artist Jessica Hansell, better known as Coco Solid, delivered a candid and confrontational speech in which she critiqued New Zealand’s frequent self-gratification, which tended to overlook our abysmal social inequality.

“What I can’t connect with is this false sense of utopia, this synthetic paradise that we literally sell, sometimes to one and other… This is a paradise for who?

“I’m not just a creative. I’m a Māori woman. And sometimes I stand in these spaces in visceral shock because for wāhine like me, from backgrounds like me, artists and advocates like me, this paradise is quite literally a fucking lottery.”

Continuing with her powerful oratory, Hansell condemned the cultural appropriation within the creative industry and the “gentrification” of the psyche and voice of indigenous peoples, which she said was a continuation of colonisation and white supremacy. She closed the day urging a “permanent state of unlearning, interrogation and voluntary relinquishing of status and power” and praised the arts as rongoā, or medicine.

But it was her final sentence which truly captured the essence and vitality of the creative process, something that had been emanated by every single speaker and performer throughout the day.

“Creative thinkers – they doctor the energy, the wairua. Artists are the frequency clarifiers, the mood modulators, the permission givers, simultaneously the visionists and the revisionists. Thanks for listening to me and the multitude of ancestors that I’m comprised of.”

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