Public hut fee policy in New Zealand parks. A users' perspective

The Government's introduction of 'user pays' and related policies has already affected New Zealand parks and public hut users. The Department of Conservation's public hut fee policy is still changing and incorporates cost recovery as a primary goal. Although public hut users are the target of such policies and their comments useful to fee policy decisions, their input into the public hut fee debate has not often been elicited. This project analyses their input to address issues of public hut fee policy. It therefore provides often-neglected information essential for these policy decisions. Hut users' comments on effects of the public hut fee system are analysed. Issues important to this policy are thereby identified using a framework which places the effects of user fees (from the perspective of hut users) in the wider context of the government policies related to 'user pays'. The summarised comments of a group of hut users from Arthur's Pass National Park are discussed within this framework. Environmental damage is used as an example of an effect of the cost recovery policy applied to public hut fees. Analysis of public hut fee policy issues enables conclusions to be made about the Department of Conservation's policy and to anticipate the implications of this policy for parks, hut users, park managers, and the public