The resort town set to be the world’s first carbon-zero tourist destination

Which major international travel hub is set to be the first carbon-zero tourism destination in the world? The answer might be surprising: New Zealand’s adventure playground, Queenstown.

In a move that’s likely to benefit the Australians who make up the largest slice of the three million visitors to the Queensland Lakes region annually, it’s unveiled plans to be carbon zero by 2030, with electric jetboats, gondola access to mountains and hydrogen or battery hybrid flights.

Queenstown is aiming for carbon-zero status by 2030.Credit: Chris McLennan

Its only rival for the race to the title is likely to be the southern China island of Hainan, with Australian destinations lagging far behind.

“It’s a very ambitious move but one we’ve taken only after a huge amount of research, community, council and business engagement and planning,” said Destination Queenstown chief executive Mat Woods. “We’re now putting those plans into action.

“With a growing number of visitors every year, especially from Australia, we felt they were in danger of losing their warm welcome as they put so much pressure on infrastructure and on the environment, but this is a regenerative tourism strategy that we feel will protect the future for generations to come. And setting it for 2030 creates a real sense of urgency.”

The decarbonisation scheme, aimed at eliminating the use of fossil fuels and rapidly cutting greenhouse gas emissions, includes Air New Zealand replacing its domestic fleet with green hydrogen or battery hybrid-powered aircraft, with the first demonstration flight slated for 2026. Hotels are also being urged to follow the lead of the off-grid Headwaters Eco Lodge at Camp Glenorchy, the world’s first accommodation certified with the highest tourism sustainability score by the International Living Future Institute.

In addition, the prototype of another world-first electric jet boat is being tested for the Shotover Jet, while the oldest coal-fired passenger-carrying steamship in the Southern Hemisphere, the 1912 TSS Earnslaw which regularly cruises Lake Whakatipu, is to be converted to hydrogen or electricity.

Visitors could soon also travel from Queenstown Airport to their hotels in self-driving EV mini-coaches or via small cabins travelling on elevated cableways, currently being developed and piloted in Queenstown’s Remarkables Park by EV transportation company Whoosh.

“These are all important examples of what it is possible to achieve, with the will,” said Destination Queenstown marketing director Sarah O’Donnell. “A lot of operators and businesses had already started to take action off their own bat, anyway.

“But we’ll be helping all these innovations evolve in an environmentally friendly way. As a result, we can demonstrate that tourism can add value to the lives of people who both live in Queenstown and to their visitors, and not have a negative impact.”

The hugely popular Fergburger in Queenstown. Credit: iStock

The only other tourism centre coming close to Queenstown is Hainan, whose largest industries are agriculture and Chinese tourism, with its tropical beaches and lush forests. Its provincial government plans to end the sale of fossil fuel cars by 2030, and have EVs and hybrids account for 45 per cent of the island’s fleet.

In Australia, just seven tourism areas so far have achieved global standard ECO Destination certification by Ecotourism Australia and, of those, three have set their own net zero targets: Bundaberg in Queensland, the Blue Mountains in NSW and Augusta Margaret River in WA.

Ecotourism Australia CEO Elissa Keenan said it is now known that the demands of travellers are changing, with visitors and operators looking for sustainable and responsible options, and clear, credible certification standards.

“We know we need to commit now to really start embedding sustainability as a normal part of business and indeed it is a ‘must do’, no longer a ‘nice to have’,” she said.

“Research over the past few years and global reports from the World Travel and Tourism Council, Expedia, booking.com, American Express and others have found a growing consumer interest in what businesses are doing in terms of sustainability. We know that increasingly more and more travellers are actively looking for sustainable options.”

At the Bundaberg Regional Council, director of strategic projects and economic development Ben Artup outlined similar aspirations as Queenstown to go to net zero but said they wouldn’t be able to do it as quickly.

“We meet with industry every quarter to see how they could transition and green the grid and invest in renewable energy,” he said. “We have a fund to set up more EV-charging infrastructure and educate people to make the switch and Bundaberg already has the number one take-up rate of household solar PVB in the world, with more than half of our properties having solar on their roofs.

“We hope we can be carbon-zero as soon as possible, we hope by 2033. We’re working to bring the whole region on the journey.”

The Blue Mountains City Council is also striving hard for a carbon-zero future, and for the council to become a leader in the field. But it’s concentrating on a narrower field of direct emissions from sources that it owns or controls, including electricity usage from street lighting, with voluntary codes imposed on indirect emissions produced outside the council.

In the Shire of Augusta Margaret River, there’s also a lot of work being done revegetating land, developing a new renewable energy project and drafting a Sustainable Economy Strategy. Its efforts, however, to move further with challenges like bringing in low-carbon tourist transport have encountered commercial viability issues.

Meanwhile, in Queenstown, the EV infrastructure is being expanded, public transport is to be either electrified or run on hydrogen and made free, racks of e-bikes will be installed at every bus stop, small hydrogen-powered ferries will be introduced across the lake, and a new solar farm will be developed along with the existing nearby wind farms.