New Zealand is getting so popular that the country is running low on hotel rooms for all the tourists. The tourist growth has happened faster than anticipated and the building of hotels hasn’t caught up to the demand.
Last year New Zealand saw 3.5 million visitors. By the year 2022, this is expected to be around 4.5 million each year, which is almost as much as the country’s entire population.
The lack of hotel rooms has led some people to literally take shelter in Maori meeting houses, and the number of people using Airbnb’s has gone up. The hotel occupancy is consistently at 86 percent all year round.
The tourism authorities in New Zealand have also pointed out that the added stress of tourism is affecting the sewer systems and the trails.
