The Department of Conservation (DOC) has confirmed details for the paid parking pilot at Aoraki/Mt Cook’s White Horse Hill car park, which will begin this summer.

TIA provided feedback on the proposal last month, representing the views of our members and the wider industry. We are pleased to see that DOC has taken on board a number of considerations raised throughout this process, including that concessionaries are exempt from the parking fees, setting the level of parking rates and minimising the impact on locals and regular users. We are also advocating that funds raised are largely used at place to enhance the experience of visitors to those places.

DOC’s announcement aligns with our industry strategy to ensure balanced growth, with Action 7 of Tourism 2025 to ‘Transform Tourism and Conservation’.  This strategy ensures that the industry and DOC work together to establish a process that optimises existing tourism, conservation settings and outcomes while looking at how to support the modernisation of complex legislation to deliver improvements over the longer term.

For more information, please see DOC’s media release here and TIAs submission here.