How to change an iconic travel & tourism experience … for good

Mak­ing things bet­ter rarely neces­sit­ates tear­ing everything down and start­ing again. Josie Major of GOOD Travel (no rela­tion) describes how research and a little ima­gin­a­tion can turn a quint­es­sen­tial New Zea­l­and travel exper­i­ence — the road trip — into some­thing poten­tially much bet­ter for every­one. Thanks to “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Second Look World­wide for invit­ing Josie to con­trib­ute this “GT” Insight.

Des­pite our remote­ness, Aotearoa (New Zea­l­and) has become an incred­ibly pop­u­lar tour­ist des­tin­a­tion. Our industry has grown rap­idly in recent years. Our little coun­try of 5 mil­lion res­id­ents wel­comed nearly 4 mil­lion vis­it­ors in 2019. But now, with bor­der restric­tions in place due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, these inter­na­tion­al arrivals have come to a halt, and we are hav­ing to rethink what travel & tour­ism should look like in our country.

First, know more

At GOOD Travel, we are cur­rently work­ing on research that will help us estab­lish an image of what sus­tain­able and respons­ible tour­ism should look like in New Zea­l­and. We’re tak­ing this time of reflec­tion to ask ques­tions about the future:

When vis­it­ors return to Aotearoa, what do we want tour­ism to look like?

What forms of tour­ism should not be wel­comed back?

How can we use tour­ism to help rebuild our eco­nomy, our regions, our communities?

Through inter­views with aca­dem­ic experts, industry stake­hold­ers, and tour­ism oper­at­ors, we are estab­lish­ing an under­stand­ing of what good tour­ism might look like for post-COV­ID-19 Aotearoa. Now more than ever, we need to work toward a tour­ism that is regen­er­at­ive and resi­li­ent, and empower trav­el­lers to make good choices.

Our research in New Zea­l­and has high­lighted chal­lenges com­mon to many inter­na­tion­al tour­ism des­tin­a­tions. These include infra­struc­ture chal­lenges, the need to devel­op a more robust mon­it­or­ing sys­tem for the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of tour­ism oper­at­ors, and the need to increase region­al dis­pers­al of tourists. 

Opportunities for Aotearoa

In the con­text of COVID-19 and the re-ima­gin­ing of the industry in New Zea­l­and, our research has shed light on new oppor­tun­it­ies. It has shown that we need more com­munity-led tour­ism; a tour­ism that works dir­ectly with com­munit­ies to offer authen­t­ic and mean­ing­ful exper­i­ences. And it shows that small oper­at­ors are lead­ing the way toward sus­tain­able tour­ism; build­ing prin­ciples of sus­tain­ab­il­ity into their busi­ness mod­els and mak­ing them a priority. 

Pre­lim­in­ary research res­ults also provide evid­ence that we need to empower trav­el­lers to recog­nise the impact they have as vis­it­ors on envir­on­ments and com­munit­ies, and to sup­port trav­el­lers who are act­ively try­ing to have a pos­it­ive impact while they travel but aren’t quite sure how to achieve this. 

These find­ings are already guid­ing the devel­op­ment of new GOOD Travel trips for Kiwis and for inter­na­tion­al vis­it­ors post COVID-19, such as our new Go Elec­tric Eco Tour.

Re-imagining the great Kiwi road trip

The road trip is a staple of New Zea­l­and tour­ism, both for inter­na­tion­al vis­it­ors and for domest­ic trav­el­lers. With lim­ited pub­lic trans­port infra­struc­ture, private rent­al cars and camper­vans pop­u­late our roads all year round, with surf­boards strapped to their roofs in sum­mer; skis and snow­boards in winter. 

The large car­bon foot­print of this kind of tour­ing is a prob­lem for the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of our industry. For­tu­nately, it is increas­ingly pos­sible to travel almost any­where in New Zea­l­and in elec­tric vehicles. There are char­ging sta­tions now avail­able from Cape Reinga in the north to Bluff in the south, and in some of the most remote and most beau­ti­ful places in between. In this lies an oppor­tun­ity for a new kind of Kiwi road trip; one that has a small car­bon foot­print and is designed to do good. 

In part­ner­ship with Eco­V­illa, a boutique eco-hotel in Christ­ch­urch, GOOD Travel is devel­op­ing the Go Elec­tric Eco Tour. Designed ini­tially for Kiwis — even­tu­ally for inter­na­tion­al vis­it­ors — it will allow people to explore the coun­try, see things they’ve nev­er seen before, and do so in a way that pro­tects the envir­on­ment, sup­ports loc­al busi­nesses, and gives back to the com­munit­ies they vis­it; the kind of tour­ism dis­cussed by our research participants.

We are part­ner­ing with loc­ally owned and oper­ated busi­nesses that work in and for their com­munit­ies in the Cent­ral South Island. These are small oper­at­ors who are trail-blaz­ing in terms of envir­on­ment­al sus­tain­ab­il­ity and social responsibility. 

We will equip Go Elec­tric Eco Tour cus­tom­ers with inform­a­tion about how to be a respons­ible trav­el­ler in New Zea­l­and, includ­ing sug­ges­tions for great activ­it­ies along the way. Their pur­chase of an itin­er­ary includes a dona­tion to the Mil­lion Metres Streams Pro­ject, which sup­ports water­way res­tor­a­tion pro­jects across Aotearoa. 

COVID-19 has shown the tour­ism industry in New Zea­l­and that we have to work togeth­er. The resi­li­ence of our industry relies on it. As does its “GOOD­ness”; GOOD Travel’s defin­i­tion of sus­tain­able and respons­ible tour­ism. By col­lab­or­at­ing with respons­ible busi­nesses, loc­al com­munit­ies and open-minded trav­el­lers, we can lift the entire industry to a high­er stand­ard of envir­on­ment­al sus­tain­ab­il­ity, have a great­er social impact, and inspire more trav­el­lers to choose GOOD options for their trips.

Fea­tured image (top of post): From the road­side. Mount Sefton, Mt Cook Nation­al Park, New Zea­l­and. Image by Bern­ard Spragg (CC0) via Picryl.

About the author

Hail­ing from Wel­ling­ton, New Zea­l­and, Josie Major is GOOD Travel’s Research & Devel­op­ment Intern. With a degree in His­tory & Cul­tur­al Anthro­po­logy, Josie is pas­sion­ate about the role of cross-cul­tur­al under­stand­ing in com­bat­ing social and envir­on­ment­al issues. She is also the coordin­at­or of Impact Travel Alliance’s Wel­ling­ton chapter.

Based in Wel­ling­ton, GOOD Travel is a social enter­prise ded­ic­ated to facil­it­at­ing travel that gives back to loc­al com­munit­ies, eco­nom­ies, and the envir­on­ment. “Through our tours, part­ner­ships and advocacy, we work to inspire trav­el­lers and busi­nesses to trans­form the tour­ism industry into a force for GOOD.”

Thanks to “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Second Look World­wide for invit­ing Josie to con­trib­ute this “GT” Insight.