You know that issue we have with freedom campers just taking a shit anywhere? Yeah this isn't helping.

I think people do tend to dislike being nickel-and-dimed with things like public toilets. It’s the opposite of hospitality. They’d probably do better to have a caravan selling souvenirs nearby and using the profits to support the facility. Public toilets can be a quirky drawcard — the Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa pretty much transformed that town’s tourist image, as before they were built there was only really the vintage train ride.

(It’s a cool train ride, for what it’s worth. Runs straight down the middle of SH1 for a few hundred metres, which is a pretty unique thing in NZ.)

Maybe feed some of the GST collected on purchases back to councils to keep infrastructure like this free to use.

Visitor levies are not being shared equally to the places that visitors are going; central government is a major beneficiary of visitors without having to foot the bill for services provided.

There are other funding options; but I bet that sweet sweet data is a major driver of this initiative.

I feel bad when when I charge npcs for the toilet in Rollercoaster Tycoon. They are doing this to actual people AND making them use an app

The only public toilets in Te Anau used to be user-pays. The park next to them smelled like piss. They made it free to pee in 2023: https://southlandapp.nz/NewsStory/te-anau-public-toilet-now-free-to-pee/656122d903e891002871ccc9