U.S. Blogger Tells New Zealand They Are An Expensive Destination

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Wellington fruit & veg market, New Zealand

Radio New Zealand has picked up on comments published last week by an American blogger writing for the Smithsonian Magazine.

The theme of Alastair Bland’s article in the Smithsonian blog is actually ‘destinations that will break the bank’, so Japan, Russia and Scandinavia also come in for a drubbing, but the New Zealanders have picked up on their inclusion in the list.

Radio New Zealand decided to investigate further and visited a hostel in Wellington to ask a few travellers from other countries what they thought…

Toby Manhire writing for The Listener magazine picked up on the radio report, saying:

New Zealand's tourism minister, a former currency trader, should have a copy of Alastair Bland's post shuffled into his lap on the flight back from Honolulu. It delivers what can only be bad news for the tourism industry: we are no longer classifiable as an affordable destination.

That comment was enough to draw links to Toby’s post from other sites like ForexNews.com & Firstpost.com.

Overall, New Zealand is seen as as extraordinary destination, so it represents good value for money, but clearly nobody likes to be told they are pricey.

Are they? What do you think?

Image: Phillip Capper