Chief executive Courtney Johnston said like everyone else, Te Papa was facing rising cost pressures.
”Our footprint is about six rugby fields, [it’s a] massive building to maintain and keep it heated and cooled appropriately the whole time so, gas, electricity, cleaning, insurance, all those kinds of costs have been going up for us,” Johnston said.
It comes as visitor industry groups say New Zealand’s faltering tourism recovery will stall for longer while the Government piles on more costs to enter the country.
Visa charges are increasing and the International Visitor Levy (IVL) could rise by as much as three times to $100 for many tourists outside Australia and the Pacific.
Figures out this week showed the number of overseas arrivals reached 3.2 million in the year to June, 17% down on the pre-pandemic peak.
Johnston said the museum had seen a steady return of international visitors, who make up about half of all people through the door.
“We’re still not quite where we were in the heavy days pre-Covid – 1.5 million visitors was our maximum back then – but we’re seeing a steady increase and hope that will continue.”
As to how the new charge would be enforced, Johnston said it would be an “honesty-based model” to begin with and visitors would not need to present ID.
Visitors will be greeted by staff at the door and asked where they’re from before being directed up the stairs, either to a ticket desk or into the museum, she said.
”Some people may slip through but we already know for a lot of our international visitors the first thing they ask our hosts when they walk through the door is ‘where is the ticket desk?’. So they’re usually expecting this already.”
In the last financial year, 591,062 international visitors came through Te Papa’s doors. If they all paid the new charge, it would generate almost $20.7m.
However, Johnston said given under-16s are free, there will be some group discounts, and some people will slip through the cracks, they expected to raise between $5m and $10m annually.
Te Papa has not made any projections about whether the charge will cause international visitor numbers to fall.
Johnston admitted they “may see a little slippage” but she was confident visitors would be willing to pay for their visit.
Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.
Ethan Manera is a multimedia journalist based in Wellington. He joined NZME in 2023 and is interested in politics, local issues and the public service. Ethan is always on the lookout for a story and can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz or messaged on X (formerly Twitter) @ethanjmanera
