Kiwis ripping-off tourists

[HenryDorsetCase]

Can't agree here though.

Who do the farmers bludge off when the weather bites them on the arse or Fonterra would prefer to give their shiny-bums a fat bonus rather than 'prop up the economy'?

Fonterra head office runs a pretty lean operation. Their people (or "shiny bums" as you put it) are paid very well indeed, certainly at the top levels, but they are recruited internationally, and they certainly get the pound of flesh from them. Because Fonterra is a co-operative, in fact what happens at root is that in a good year farmers get a better return. I kind of dont have an issue with that, but if you've been following the "Fonterra is in a bind and sort of kind of needs to restructure" stories (buried in the business or farming pages of your local news organ) the issues are that Fonterra needs capital but the shareholders are uncomfortable with debt and its capital structure means that a lot of normal business capital raising options arent available. On the plus side, it makes it very unlikely to be targeted for takeover, unless the whole country goes down. Look at Greece: it could happen (arguably what fucked them is borrowing money for the Lympics)... nike and mcdonalds and coke made money, the greek taxpayers paid for it. what few of them there are.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Can't agree here though.

Who do the farmers bludge off when the weather bites them on the arse or Fonterra would prefer to give their shiny-bums a fat bonus rather than 'prop up the economy'?

Fonterra head office runs a pretty lean operation. Their people (or "shiny bums" as you put it) are paid very well indeed, certainly at the top levels, but they are recruited internationally, and they certainly get the pound of flesh from them. Because Fonterra is a co-operative, in fact what happens at root is that in a good year farmers get a better return. I kind of dont have an issue with that, but if you've been following the "Fonterra is in a bind and sort of kind of needs to restructure" stories (buried in the business or farming pages of your local news organ) the issues are that Fonterra needs capital but the shareholders are uncomfortable with debt and its capital structure means that a lot of normal business capital raising options arent available. On the plus side, it makes it very unlikely to be targeted for takeover, unless the whole country goes down. Look at Greece: it could happen (arguably what fucked them is borrowing money for the Lympics)... nike and mcdonalds and coke made money, the greek taxpayers paid for it. what few of them there are.

[Berries]

Why do Kiwi tourism operators see foreign tourists as walking piggy banks? Don't they realise these tourists will never come back and tell all their friends?

Yeah, but they are not tourists in the true sense. They are here for the rugby and being international visitors they know that wherever they go in the world for a 'big' event they are going to get fleeced by the locals making the most of the opportunity. A bit like when the cruise ships arrive and all the taxi fares go up if you have checked trousers. It's just the way the world goes round.

And it's rugby. Why would you want to pay anything to see a grown man run while carrying a ball. My two year old can do that. Fuck em.

[Whynot]

Hot European Women can stay at my place for free.

umm .... i think you may be confused.

It's the rugby world cup, you won't be getting any hot european women ... the tourists will all be drunk, fat, bald, middle aged british men.

[BiK3RChiK]

On the plus side, it makes it very unlikely to be targeted for takeover, unless the whole country goes down. Look at Greece: it could happen (arguably what fucked them is borrowing money for the Lympics)... nike and mcdonalds and coke made money, the greek taxpayers paid for it. what few of them there are.

I just hope the people in the hot-seats take a lesson from Greece and don't borrow for the wugby! If peeps come here for teh cup, then they expect to pay for it. I certainly don't want to be paying for it the same way as Grecians are paying for the lympics!

[Delerium]

As I say, I expected a knock on the door, if not the head. However, it probably went straight in the shredder and I know my cheque went straight to their bank. Cocksuckers. Hey, I don't mind paying for a bit of green space and ya gotta have some infrastructure etc, but when you see (and I've seen) the amount of time and money wasted by councils (not to mention the lies they tell) it infuriates me that they get away with upping the rates every year and things seem to get worse not better. Then each mayor wants an expensive piece of art, a new park named after him/her etc, it just goes on.

Write it on the back of the cheque next time.

[scracha]

Don't start me on 'farm relief'.

Cripes...if I knew I could get 'farm relief' I'd be sticking on a pair of wellies :-)

[scracha]

I dealt with campervan companies for a few years, we even looked at approaching one for sponsorhsip in the form of a campervan to use at each round of the Nationals, they said it wasn't worth it as they dont even bother advertising Nationally as there is no market for "local tourists" this was from one of the major players in the campervan game

Oh aye, the major players like Kea and Britz advertise heavily internationally......if I recall they're plastered all over the in flight bumph. However, there are a hell of a lot of privately owned campervans and the smaller hire companies (the majority in this country) rely heavily on us yokkels.

[Tank]

I just hope the people in the hot-seats take a lesson from Greece and don't borrow for the wugby! If peeps come here for teh cup, then they expect to pay for it. I certainly don't want to be paying for it the same way as Grecians are paying for the lympics!

Its not borrowing from the 'lympics' that fucked Greece - in fact most (and I say most because there was one that disagreed) show that the economic benefits of the cup will be very high.

More to do with retiring on 80% of salary at 55, paying people for 14 or 16 month years etc thats fucking em.

[SPman]

Some years ago, me and a mate happened to be at a public golf course in Auckland, for some reason (not to play golf). A group of Japanese tourists turned up and wanted a round of golf.."how much?" $250 each said the guy behind the counter!
Boy, was he pissed off when we wandered over and told the, bemused, but almost willing to pay tourists that, no, it wasn't $250 each, it was $60 each! The 'honorable' gentleman had made a mistake.....
Just because it was expensive in Japan, was no reason for the prick to try and take advantage of them - he would have slipped most of the money into his pocket and charged them through at $60!

[JimO]

$60 sounds to much

[SS90]

Its not borrowing from the 'lympics' that fucked Greece -

Not true there Tank, I can assure you 100% that it was the Olympics that "finished Greece off", as they borrowed huge amounts to finance it (on top of there already massive debts), and it turned out that the Greeks where "cooking their books" when it came to the financial statements for international banking entities (IMF, World Bank, and,worst of all, the E.U Money union), and, if they had not falsified their accounts, they would never have been loaned the money, as they where already too far in debt.

The latest joke over this way would translate as " Do you hear there is a new kind of shopping Mall...... It's called "greek shopping", you go to the best stores, take what you want, then wait for someone else to pay"

I assure you, the Olymics was the "nail in the coffin" for Greece.

I have been there many times, I can tell you, it is Europe's version of Zimbabwe.