Call for greater tourism cooperation welcomed, but with some reservations

AN argument for southern tourism organisations to work more closely together and ‘‘hunt as a pack’’ to attract visitors has attracted some enthusiasm, but also questions how effective it would be.

Six of seven regional tourism organisations (RTOs), run by councils to promote their regions, responded to requests for comment on a suggestion from Dunedin Airport chief executive Richard Roberts this week.

Mr Roberts called for RTOs to work together to ‘‘build a bigger pie’’.

He also said Dunedin could help with overcrowding at Queenstown Airport by taking some flights.

Most contacted mentioned the ‘‘South initiative’’, overseen by Christchurch Airport and Tourism New Zealand, in which RTOs market the South Island collectively.

Lake Wanaka Tourism general manager James Helmore said it was the appeal of a destination or product that attracted a visitor.

‘‘You want to remove the barriers to travellers.

‘‘You don’t want to go ‘let’s fly into Dunedin and have to bus them or drive them through to Milford Sound’, for example.’’

He said travellers wanted to get as close to possible to where they wanted to go, and questioned whether there was enough product in some places, such as the Catlins, to attract visitor spending.

Travelling from Australia to Dunedin before heading to Queenstown or Wanaka might not be attractive to Australian tourists, unless there was something that appealed to them in Dunedin.

Venture Southland chief executive Paul Casson said Invercargill was in a good position to share international flights.

‘‘Although it sounds quite brutal and quite hard, everyone’s grappling for the same things.’’

Mr Casson raised the idea of a bullet train from Invercargill, then ferries from Kingston to Queenstown.

He said there needed to be closer alliances between RTOs, though there was already collaboration.

Tourism Central Otago general manager Glenys Coughlan said her organisation collaborated with neighbours when it met the needs of different markets.

The idea of cooperating made sense, but if targeting wine tourism, it might be more sensible to collaborate with Marlborough or Hawke’s Bay.

Overall she was supportive, and ‘‘if there are opportunities for collaboration we’d certainly be enthusiastic to be part of that’’.

Tourism Waitaki general manager Margaret Munro ‘‘totally’’ supported the idea. She said collaboration would give the region greater power and a stronger voice, and could encourage people to spend longer in the region.

Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie said there were ‘‘lots of different initiatives’’ that were done collaboratively between the RTOs.

When there was a Tourism New Zealandled initiative overseas, often a representative from an alliance of southern RTOs would present for all of them.

‘‘There’s always improvement that can be made, but in saying that we’ve got some great collaboration.’’

Clutha Development district marketing manager Toby Bennett said he welcomed the opportunity to work with or collaborate with neighbours.

Destination Queenstown chief executive Graham Budd is in China.