Waikato Business News August/September 2020
Waikato Business News has for a quarter of a century been the voice of the region’s business community, a business community with a very real commitment to innovation and an ethos of co-operation.
Waikato Business News has for a quarter of a century been the voice of the region’s business community, a business community with a very real commitment to innovation and an ethos of co-operation.
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WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS <strong>August</strong>/<strong>September</strong> <strong>2020</strong><br />
9<br />
Rebuilding and reimagining<br />
the future of tourism<br />
Unfortunately, the recovery of our visitor sector took a step<br />
backwards with the lockdown of the Auckland region. Auckland<br />
is our biggest drive market from a corporate and leisure travel<br />
perspective, and we immediately saw the cancellations of<br />
bookings for the next two to three weeks.<br />
TELLING WAIKATO’S STORY<br />
> BY JASON DAWSON<br />
Chief Executive,<br />
Hamilton & <strong>Waikato</strong> Tourism<br />
Adding to our woes<br />
was the return of Alert<br />
Level 2 for the <strong>Waikato</strong><br />
region, which led to the postponement<br />
or cancellation of<br />
large events, and the return of<br />
physical distancing and compulsory<br />
contact tracing.<br />
Up until the change in alert<br />
levels, we were starting to the<br />
see the benefit of increased<br />
domestic visitors into the<br />
region, as well as the lift in<br />
expenditure. We are all hopeful<br />
that this is just a short-term<br />
blip on our Covid-19 recovery<br />
journey.<br />
This time of year has traditionally<br />
been a quieter time for<br />
the region with regards to tourism,<br />
and is giving us the time<br />
to rethink the future of our sector<br />
for the short and long-term.<br />
There is no doubt that some<br />
parts of New Zealand were<br />
under significant pressure<br />
from visitor numbers leading<br />
to issues around over-tourism<br />
and eroding the social licence<br />
to operate around the country.<br />
Here in the <strong>Waikato</strong>, we<br />
still had the space to disperse<br />
domestic and international<br />
visitors around lesser known<br />
places of our region, plus our<br />
shoulder season events calendar<br />
was growing.<br />
However, we still had challenges<br />
around transport connectivity,<br />
mobile phone black<br />
spots, a shortage of large-scale<br />
commercial accommodation in<br />
Hamilton, Waitomo and Matamata,<br />
and the inability to introduce<br />
regional visitor levies to<br />
fund key infrastructure in our<br />
destination communities.<br />
The Tourism Futures Taskforce<br />
has been established by<br />
the Government to help us use<br />
this ‘circuit-breaker’ of Covid-<br />
19 to reassess and reimagine<br />
a sustainable tourism sector<br />
that actively contributes to the<br />
wellbeing of our communities<br />
and creates added-value experiences<br />
for our domestic and<br />
international visitor market.<br />
The Taskforce will advise<br />
on what changes New Zealand<br />
can make to the tourism<br />
system and make long-term<br />
recommendations to address<br />
the long-standing productivity,<br />
inclusivity and sustainability<br />
issues present in some<br />
part of the sector.<br />
For <strong>Waikato</strong>, we were<br />
already ahead of the pack by<br />
adopting our Tourism Opportunities<br />
Plan in 2016. This<br />
two-year project involved a<br />
range of community, industry<br />
and iwi consultation to identify<br />
our key game-changers,<br />
plus identify opportunities to<br />
increase the ‘value vs volume’<br />
challenge for the region.<br />
We will use this plan, and<br />
our achievements to date, as a<br />
foundation to implement a destination<br />
management approach<br />
for the <strong>Waikato</strong> and broaden<br />
the scope of community<br />
involvement, plus align to the<br />
many regional strategies and<br />
plans to ensure an integrated<br />
approach is fully realised.<br />
Developing a destination<br />
management framework will<br />
also raise a number of issues,<br />
challenges, ideas and solutions<br />
which we can feed into the<br />
Tourism Futures Taskforce as<br />
they seek wider contributions<br />
from around New Zealand. The<br />
big question to be addressed in<br />
this work is how will we successfully<br />
co-curate a future for<br />
tourism in <strong>Waikato</strong> that benefits<br />
everyone. We were also<br />
succesful in attracting funding<br />
from the Strategic Tourism<br />
Assets Protection Programme<br />
(STAPP) for regional tourism<br />
organisations based on<br />
the retention of our existing<br />
local government funding.<br />
This additional funding will<br />
make up the significant shortfall<br />
of industry investment<br />
from our tourism operators,<br />
accommodation providers,<br />
tour and transport businesses,<br />
suppliers plus the events and<br />
venues sector.<br />
The STAPP funding will<br />
help us deliver 27 projects<br />
over the next 12 months under<br />
the three Government priority<br />
areas for investment – domestic<br />
marketing, industry capability<br />
building and destination<br />
management.<br />
Out of the 27 programmes<br />
of work, 11 are collaboration<br />
projects with other regions<br />
which border the <strong>Waikato</strong>.<br />
Examples include touring<br />
route development with Ruapehu<br />
and Taranaki, partnering<br />
with Auckland on a joint venture<br />
campaign, plus rolling<br />
out a regenerative tourism<br />
programme across the Central<br />
North Island.<br />
We look forward to updating<br />
you on the progress of<br />
these regional projects over the<br />
coming months as we rebuild<br />
and reimagine the future<br />
of our tourism.<br />
Hamilton & <strong>Waikato</strong> Tourism<br />
is the regional tourism<br />
organisation charged with<br />
increasing international and<br />
domestic leisure and business<br />
travellers, expenditure and stay.<br />
The organisation is funded<br />
through a public/private partnership<br />
and covers the heartland<br />
<strong>Waikato</strong> areas of Hamilton<br />
City, Matamata-Piako,<br />
Otorohanga, South <strong>Waikato</strong>,<br />
<strong>Waikato</strong>, Waipa and Waitomo<br />
Districts. Find out more:<br />
www.waikatonz.com<br />
Experience care as it<br />
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Strange<br />
for Hamilton East<br />
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Choose the very best.<br />
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If you would like to discuss anything, or find out more<br />
information, please contact me:<br />
jamie.strange@labour.org.nz<br />
/jamiestrangemp<br />
/jamiestrange_mp<br />
Let’s keep moving