The district's mayor Jim Boult said he didn't think the area would benefit sufficiently from the central government levy. ''We've got 5.5 million visitor nights (a year) in the district with 23,000 ratepayers . He said the council was discussing a local levy with the government but hadn't decided on what form it would take. It could be a bed tax or a wider levy across businesses but this could be complicated. The government's visitor levy will raise an estimated $80 million a year to pay for tourism infrastructure and conservation projects.

Source: Otago Daily Times February 10, 2019 01:41 UTC