Regions with a small number of local rate payers and a lot of visitors have an infrastructure problem, the New Zealand tourism industry says.
TIA’s Chris Roberts told TVNZ1’s Breakfast, "We do not have a visitor problem we have an infrastructure problem, where the infrastructure in particular regions is not sufficient to meet the needs of all those visitors and the local community."
He said the way to resolve this is to think about where the benefits of tourism ends up going.
"We’ve come up with a proposal that 20 per cent of all the GST paid by those international visitors gets redistributed back to the regions where those visitors go, which would give the local councils a funding stream that would mean they’d be able to invest in the roads and the public toilets and all the other facilities that the visitors are using.”
Mr Roberts says another issue is the amount of tourists visiting New Zealand hot spots.
In the Mood of the Nation survey it found New Zealanders are concerned when they went away to an isolated place it would be over run with visitors.
However the International survey found that overseas visitors are "as happy as they've ever been."
He said there is a project underway to address the issues at these hot spots.
"There’s a big project underway to manage the future for Milford, some measures have been taken in the North Island to try and manage the Tongariro crossing which is another place where we know there is pressure, up at Hot Water Beach there’s some measures in place there."
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