5 reasons why banishing backpackers and targeting wealthy tourists would be a mistake for NZ
- Written by James Higham, Professor of Tourism, University of Otago

Raise your hand if you’ve ever travelled for weeks or months as a backpacker on a limited daily budget. Keep your hand up if you were made welcome in the places you visited on your OE, enjoyed chance encounters and experienced the generosity of strangers.
And did those experiences leave a lifelong affection for the places...