Tourism rate: benefits exist say some players
Paddy Gillooly of Farewell Spit Eco Tours has been involved with regional tourism organisations, in their various guises, for more than 20 years. He believes that tourism businesses of all sizes can regard the proposed targeted rate for tourism in a more positive light.
“I don’t see it as a tax or a levy,” said Mr Gillooly. “For small businesses that don’t have big marketing budgets, it’s their international marketing budget. It helps the regional tourism organisation get the people into the region so that you can have a crack at them with your own advertising.”
“It’s the job of the tourism board to market the country, Nelson Tasman Tourism (NTT) to market the region, the Promotions Association to market Golden Bay and each individual business to market themselves,” said Mr Gillooly. “But, to get the best bang for your buck, you’ve got to work in with them. And you’ve got to go and find them; they shouldn’t have to come to you. One good thing that I hope comes out of the present controversy is that far more tourist businesses take an interest in NTT. There are certainly lots of those businesses in the Bay. I’ve heard it said that there could be 70 or 80 more than are currently being talked about. If all of them were helping to pay the rate, it would be less for everyone,” said Mr Gillooly.
Asked about the proposed tageted rate, Golden Bay Promotions chairperson, Jane Dixon said, ”Nelson Tasman Tourism is a council- owned entity, like Port Nelson, Nelson Airport and others. Golden Bay Promotions appreciates the benefits that NTT brings to the area. We believe that TDC should continue funding it , so it operates effectively and efficiently. The current formula for the targeted rate is not endorsed by Golden Bay Promotions and ideas for how the funding would be best achieved vary widely.”
A criticism levelled at NTT by opponents of the targeted rate is that the organisation has not consulted with its members.
“It doesn’t have members,” said Paddy. “It’s a company jointly owned by Nelson City Council (NCC) and TDC. This is the start of the consultation, not the end of it. TDC had to decide what to do about the company’s request for money to fund the destination marketing. When the two-tier targeted rate idea came up, people who were likely to be affected by it got interested. Submissions on the draft LTCCP close on Monday and that’s the mechanism for people to have their say. I hope lots of people submit, but if they’re against the targeted rate, I hope they suggest alternatives.”
NTT’s CEO Paul Davis says that it is difficult to prove the direct effects of the organisation’s marketing efforts.
“Take the current global economic situation,” said Mr Davis. “If you take away the money we spend on behalf of the industry here, it’s impossible to know how much better or worse things would be. There are some interesting indicators, though.”
Mr Davis pointed to the example of the Hamilton City Council who, two years ago, decided to disestablish the Waikato regional tourism organisation. Since then, Air New Zealand has decided to stop flying international visitors in and out of Hamilton’s airport. In response, the airport, which is jointly owned by five of Waikato’s seven local authorities, has employed someone to re-establish the regional tourism authority.
Another guide to the link between tourism marketing and visitor bed-nights can be seen in the performance of the Wellington regional tourism organisation, Positively Wellington Tourism, said Mr Davis.
“They are the highest spender by far of New Zealand regional tourism authorities,” he said. “In terms of guest-night growth, which is one of the indicators of success in the industry, Wellington also leads the country. For the month of February, which is the last month we have records for, Wellington enjoyed 5.2% guest-night growth. Rotorua was down 4.7% and Queenstown was down 2.2%, so it’s significant. Positively Wellington Tourism is funded by a targeted rate on businesses in Wellington’s CBD.”
“Nelson/Tasman is the eighth most-visited region of the 20 in the country,” he said. “Tourists don’t end up here by accident - they make their decisions based on a whole range of information, much of which we have been involved in. Tourism New Zealand spends $75 million a year in international marketing programmes. That gets people to the country but then they can go any way they choose. Visitors to Nelson/Tasman spend $302 million dollars a year in our region. That’s $827,000 every day of the year. Our marketing programmes help visitors choose to come here.”
The local-body owners of NTT have signalled that they want to cap their contributions to the business from general rates at $780,000 pa. Last year the tourist industry itself contributed $1.05 million to NTT, through commissions on ticket sales, rent on space in visitor centres and participation in its marketing programmes.
“It costs money to get the visitors here,” said Mr Davis. “Through the submission process we’d like people to tell us what a fair mechanism is to get the people who benefit from tourism to help bear the cost, The more businesses who contribute, the less each one has to pay.”
Submissions on the council’s draft LTCCP close on Monday.
Neil Wilson
