Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye says public transport must take priority over cruise ships after several ferries were forced to circle round the inner harbour for a cruise ship to berth.
Kaye said the situation was unacceptable, saying Fullers needed to explain why some services were cancelled.
“It is my understanding the timetable information of when the cruise comes in is published well in advance by Ports of Auckland,” she said.
Ferry commuters in Auckland are fuming because of delays caused by cruise ships berthing in the city.
If you are angry about cruise ships stopping Ferries, it gets worse.
Princes Wharf and Queens Wharf are supposed to be open for Aucklanders but when Cruise ships are in Port those Wharfs are closed off to the Public – there are 101 bloody cruise ships visiting Auckland this year – that’s 101 days Aucklanders can’t use their waterfront – how many bloated swine palaces are too many bloated swine palaces?
These bloated swine palaces are the perfect example of wonky economic growth.
Sure, they make money for the Port, there are replenishment dollars to be had, but the tourists flood downtown Auckland pushing up the store rentals at the bottom of Queen street for expensive international brand’s that locals don’t buy while the homeless sit outside the Dior and Gucci stores begging.
Isn’t that juxtaposition of beggars and luxury brands the very wrong type of Auckland we have built?
The never ending mass tourism is already causing Auckland infrastructure to groan and is turning most of our sight seeing spots around the country into never ending queues and open long drops.
In 2018 Auckland Airport received 2.72million tourists, that’s almost 3 times Aucklands entire population gridlocking that roading network.
At what point do we demand that the Tourism Tax be rapidly increased to pay for the infrastructure that locals have to tolerate and how many Tourists are too many dammit?
On a planet rapidly warming, we should be looking to limit tourism, not expand it!
Never a truer word said, what sort of government and council closes off their public waterfront for 101 days per year and stops public transport in favour of highly polluting cruise ships growing at 18% per year?
Even ‘Green’ Cruise Ships Are Polluting the Earth at Incredible Rates
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/cruise-ships-polluters-ocean-sewage-particulates/
Report finds cruise ships create the same pollution as 1 million cars every day.
Then the ability to dump billions of raw sewerage and waste water just 3km out to sea!
Cruise ships dump 1 billion gallons of sewage into the ocean every year
https://qz.com/308970/cruise-ships-dump-1-billion-tons-of-sewage-into-the-ocean-every-year/
Well with 3 NH90’s deployed to Austrlalia for bush fire duties that leaves 5 in New Zealand for tasking, training and maintenance. That’s not enough to to cover the whole country because the NH90’s is the only rescue helicopter NZ has that can perform in all weathers and at night. To compound matters NZs premier Hospital, Auckland Central can not land an NH90 on its helipad because it’s to heavy. So how much is to many tourist? Well we’ve been running over capacity for decades.
On a planet rapidly warming, we should be looking to limit tourism,
We are living in a time when everyone on the planet is facing an imminent battle for survival. How can we justify this tourism madness?
Check out this latest NASA Report: nasa-breaks-down-all-the-terrifying-ways-2019-smashed-records
A Frank Film article in Stuff, back in November, asked, “How many tourists are too many?”
Excerpt:
University of Otago tourism Professor James Higham said “historically we’ve had a focus on tourist maximisation based on visitor numbers and contribution to the economy”, but cautions that “questions are now being asked about the capacity to receive and accommodate increasing numbers of tourists”.
The questions relate mainly to tourism’s affect on the New Zealand environment, on which there are few studies. Frank Film understands the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton, is set to release a report on the environmental impact of tourism in the coming months.
Of growing concern globally is the high environmental cost of getting to New Zealand, with a return flight from London to Auckland carrying a carbon footprint of about 7000 kilograms, equivalent to a petrol-powered car travelling 40,000 kilometres, according to Enviro-Mark Solutions’ online emissions calculator. how-many-tourists-are-too-many-tourists
Simon Upton is our Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Last month he released a report which noted serious pressures tourism is placing on our environment, and the urgent need to start addressing these. The report is titled “Pristine, popular … imperilled? The environmental consequences of projected tourism growth”.
This excerpt from a tvnz cover article
Environmental pressures from tourism include loss of natural isolation, degrading water, increased waste, increasing infrastructure and loss of landscape, loss of flora and fauna, biosecurity risk and emissions.
An increased threat of foreign species being introduced, increased challenges for Māori, tourism destinations operating at or close to full capacity, and the loss of ‘the tranquillity and isolation that made those places worth visiting in the first instance’ are outcomes Mr Upton predicts will occur in the future, unless greater action to protect the environment is taken.
Kelvin Davis is our Tourism Minister. He saw the report as an endorsement of sustainability initiatives which are already being implemented. He told TVNZ, “We’re doing a lot, a heck of a lot already.”
Sorry, Kelvin. “A heck of a lot” may sound good, but it is nowhere near enough. We’re now in 2020 and much of the planet is heating up, drying out, and bursting into flame. And, Aotearoa is stressed to the max already. It’s time to get into gear and start making far more significant changes, with an eye to their longer term effects.
Just chill out mate. Tourism and international travel goes both ways, and Kiwis are the biggest travellers in the world. A lot of those people are probably kiwis:
The equivalent of 2.5 per cent of New Zealand’s population took an ocean cruise last year, giving the nation a greater market penetration rate than established markets like Italy (1.3 per cent), Spain (1.1 per cent) and France (0.8 per cent).
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12228130
Agree they should not be blocking ferries though – but that should be an easy fix.
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