Big lack of hotel rooms

Press, 18 June 1986, Page 2

Big lack of hotel rooms

Wellington reporter Unless something is done, New Zealand is going to have a huge shortfall in first-class hotel rooms, according to National’s spokesman on tourism, Mr John Banks. He told the first annual meeting of the Motor Lodges of New Zealand Society in Picton yesterday that shortages were likely in Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch, and Queenstown within two years. Already there were reports of North Americans cancelling whole tours of the South Pacific because they were unable to find accommodation in Queenstown of the standard they wanted. It took up to six years to plan and build a large accommodation complex, Mr Banks said. Finance and planning provided most of the problems. The cost of rooms in New Zealand was low by international standards, but the cost of accommodation development was not. He intended to look at town-planning legislation and regulations to see if these could not be "fasttracked,” which would give incentive for people to create, invest in, and develop accommodation in New Zealand. There was also a strong case for the encouragement of more overseas investment.