Freedom camping in Aotearoa New Zealand: an exploration of stakeholder perceptions

Abstract

The global COVID-19 health pandemic has shaken the most stable political systems, and left deep economic scars across industries. With global and national travel at a standstill, the tourism industry is among the most heavily hit. The gradual lifting of restrictions has already fuelled tourism demand, and previous hopes of rebuilding and transforming tourism more sustainably are vanishing. To ensure that pre-COVID-19 situations of unsustainable development do not resurface, it is of critical importance to go beyond economically driven crisis recovery. Instead, governments need to reconsider pre-crisis challenges, such as imbalances between tourists and residents, infrastructure shortages, and questions around the efficiency of regulations and policies. In New Zealand, issues related to freedom camping have fuelled these debates, with headlines relating to tourists defecating in public space, dropping garbage, and being ‘freeloaders’ with little economic value. Adopting a multiple stakeholder approach, this research note empirically explores stakeholder perceptions of challenges associated with freedom camping in the context of New Zealand. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 stakeholders representing host communities, local councils, national agencies, tourism businesses, and regional tourism organisations. Qualitative data analysis reveals positive changes and reduced impacts as results of additional infrastructure funding, educational measures, and locally enforced bylaws. However, participants also noted the need for a national framework, and clear statements and messages regarding domestic demand. Considering that nature-based experiences that allow for social distancing, such as (freedom) camping, have grown significantly during the pandemic and that domestic tourists will be crucial to post-COVID tourism recovery, this original multiple stakeholder approach delivers policy-relevant insights and provides avenues for future research with regard to a responsible and sustainable tourism restart.