Email received today from Chris Roberts, Chief Executive, Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand: From: Chris Roberts [mailto:[email protected]] Subject: RE: Protecting our tourism economy, beaches and oceans from deep sea oil exploration activity Kia Ora Catherine, Thank you for your email. I am aware of the seismic programme for the Te Reinga basin. I also have some technical understanding of seismic surveys, having previously worked for a small New Zealand company which has oil and gas fields in offshore Taranaki. There is no danger to “the tourism industry, beaches and oceans” from a seismic survey. A dozen or more such surveys are carried out around New Zealand every year and thousands are conducted around the world. Of course, if the Reinga survey shows there are reasonable prospects of oil and gas deposits in the basin, Statoil may choose to drill an exploratory well at some time in the future. And if the results of that were positive, there could be the prospect of a commercial oil or gas field being developed in the next decade or so. New Zealand would expect any such development to take place in an environmentally responsible way and we have some of the tightest environmental protections in the world. Taranaki has had producing oil and gas fields – onshore and offshore – for many decades and tourism in Taranaki has not been adversely affected. Personally, I think Northland has to consider all the options that could provide an economic boost for the region. Tourism growth and offshore oil and gas exploration are not mutually exclusive; both can be pursued. In terms of global warming; the specific impact of climate change on tourism in New Zealand is very hard to predict. More frequent severe weather events would disrupt people’s holidays. But drier summers in parts of the country might actually encourage tourism. You have referred to some tourism documents from 7 or 8 years ago. The tourism industry’s current framework Tourism 2025 (tourism2025.org.nz) was developed after wide consultation and released in March last year. From that extensive process, global warming did not come up as a particular area of concern. Tourism businesses are more focused on what they can do and what their individual responsibilities are, so are looking to run sustainable businesses that protect and enhance the environment on which they depend. We would expect other businesses in other sectors to take the same approach. Regards Chris Roberts | Chief Executive | [email protected] DDI: +64 4 495 0818 | M: +64 21 534 010 | T: +64 4 499 0104 | F: +64 4 499 0827 | W: tianz.org.nz Lvl 4, Tourism & Travel House, 79 Boulcott St, Wellington 6140, New Zealand | PO Box 1697, Wellington”
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 05:36:50 +0000
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