Tourism and Transport Relationships: The Suppliers' Perspective in Gateway Destinations in New Zealand

This paper provides a supply-side perspective on how tourism development might be fostered by enhancing the links between tourism and transport. This question is explored by identifying issues raised by tourism suppliers relating to the Cook Strait ferry services between Wellington and Picton (New Zealand) and examining how visitation in these two gateways might be developed so that they have more of a destination function. Five major themes emerged; “the characteristics and products of contrasting places”; “sales and marketing”; “the implications of ferry cancelations”; “fast ferry speed restrictions and environmental impacts”; and “threats and opportunities from the creation of another gateway ferry port in Clifford Bay”. The question of destination development is thus extended by focusing on ferries, a less commonly studied mode of transport, drawing on the perspectives of tourism suppliers, stakeholders whose voice is rarely heard in the transport and tourism literature; and in studying places with multiple nodal functions.