Tourism is our second-biggest export earner. The Government has made it a priority for growth. But it’s all volume, little value. Cram people into buses, drive to spots to look at the view, put them up in bog-standard over-priced hotels, sell them some tack, extract everything you can for as little as possible in return. No need to charm visitors you never expect to return.

The late Paul Callaghan pointed out that we won’t grow more prosperous from tourism. Every tourism job in New Zealand reduces the average wage.

He calculated, back in 2011, that the value of a job in tourism to the economy was about $80,000. A dairying job created $350,000 of value. The gap can’t be closed by downgrading hotel loo-paper to single ply and selling more souvenir key rings.

Josie's Post column argues that tourism is a low-wage, low-productivity strategy, at least the way it is offered now. It is one of the reasons Kiwis work longer and harder than just about anybody, but earn less per hour than nearly all other countries we compare ourselves to