Review of city’s tourism agency under way

A REVIEW of the Dunedin City Council’s inhouse economic development, marketing and tourism agency, Enterprise Dunedin, is under way.

It was confirmed this week external consultant MartinJenkins, which has offices in Well ington and Auckland, had been contracted to carry out the review, and had already begun interviewing key players.

An update emailed to stakeholders on Tuesday, said the threemonth review was expected to be finished in September. It would include interviews with 20 external stakeholders across the city, as the reviewers scrutinised Enterprise Dunedin’s structure, what was working and what was not.

They would then make recommendations to the council’s economic development committee.

An online survey would also be sent to a wider circle of tourism businesses and other stakeholders, the update said.

The review came months after Larnach Castle director Norcombe Barker, a key figure in Dunedin’s tourism industry, blasted the performance of Enterprise Dunedin as an ‘‘unmitigated disaster’’.

Mr Barker, speaking during the council’s 10year plan hearing in April, criticised the council’s decision to replace Tourism Dun edin with its own inhouse body in 2014.

The change had heralded a dramatic dropoff in the performance of the city’s tourism sector, he said.

It had cost the city ‘‘tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars’’ in lost revenue, Mr Barker said.

A promised review of Enterprise Dunedin, planned for 2015, had also not happened, he said.

Council chief executive Sue Bidrose was not able to discuss the review yesterday, but, speaking in April, promised it would be ‘‘the review we said we would do — it’s just late’’.

Others took issue with Mr Barker’s claims and defended Enterprise Dunedin’s performance in the wake of his claims.

Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie said the review was being conducted independently of his organisation, but he had already been interviewed as part of a round of inhouse interviews conducted by the consultant.

He was not sure who was on the list of 20 external stakeholders to be interviewed, but consultants had been asked to make the interviews representative of the sectors covered by Enterprise Dunedin.

They were also asked to ‘‘pay particular attention to the tourism sector, because of its importance obviously, both in terms of the economy and interest in the review’’, he said.

It is understood Mr Barker was among those on the list of 20 external stakeholders also to be interviewed as part of the review.

The council’s economic development committee chairman, deputy mayor Chris Staynes, was not available yesterday but his deputy, Cr Andrew Whiley, stressed the review would examine Enterprise Dunedin’s wider performance, not just tourism.

Cr Whiley said that would include reconsidering the need for a tourism advisory board to guide the sector’s development.

‘‘I look forward to the outcomes of what comes out of it.’’