Are Queenstown running out of ideas?

Queenstown is regarded as the adventure tourism capital of New Zealand but many people are worrying that the area has run out of exciting adventures for people to take part in. Prominent adventure companies in the area have said this is not true and the growth of adventure tourism in Queenstown is as strong as ever.

Some of the adventure activities in this part of New Zealand include, bungee jumps, gondolas, hot air balloon rides, and skydives. One of the most recent additions to the adventures already available in the area was the flying fox, but since this time there has been relatively few new adventures introduced.

A director of an adventure tourism company in the area is Shaun Kelly who has commented, “It’s quite unusual for New Zealand to go such a long time without a new adventure activity being introduced and I expected it is only going to be a matter of time before the next big adventure comes along. The adventure tourism market in Queenstown definitely has its ups and downs and right now we are in a down but I fully expected to pick up again in the next year or so.”

Mr Kelly runs a jet boat business that has been operational since the late 1980s. He continued, “It would be fair to say that this is a slower time than I have seen before but it is the nature of business that there are slow periods and I’ve certainly seen a lot of companies go out of business recently.”

It is expected that the increasing government regulations for the adventure industry is making it harder for new adventure ideas to become reality. Despite all the regulation, the adventure tourism industry is estimated to be worth around $90 billion.