Tourism Industry Association chief executive, Martin Sneddon said the Milford monorail could be a reality after Conservation Minister Nick Smith rejected the proposed bus tunnel that would run through Fiordland National Park.
“ I don’t know just instinctively it feels like the monorail one's got a better chance of succeeding than the tunnel one had, but where the balance lies I'm not sure,” said Mr Sneddon.
He said access to tourist attractions like Milford need to be easier to access but understands the need to keep it environmentally friendly as possible.
“Yeah I think we should be heading down that track and I think that’s why the monorail idea possibly has a little bit more attraction than the tunnel idea, but in the end there's a whole lot of factors that come into this, and our environment is extremely important to us,” said Mr Sneddon.
He also said visitors from New Zealand’s traditional markets have dropped due to their economies struggling. Mr Sneddon said New Zealand needs to focus on Asian tourists and provide an experience that they would like as it is different to what our once regular tourists enjoyed.
“The reality now is that whilst we love the visitors that come from the traditional European and UK markets, most of our future for tourism probably exists from around the Pacific rim, and we've gotta find ways of not only increasing the numbers that are coming from the markets, but also increasing the value that we derive from them, and providing those visitors with an outstanding visitor experience,” he said.
NBR staff
Sun, 21 Jul 2013
Sun, 21 Jul 2013
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Monorail plan still on the table
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