More pain on way for regional tourism
New Zealand’s tourism industry is continuing to bear the sharp sting of coronavirus, with major Hawke’s Bay and Nelson operators proposing to slash staff.
Yesterday, Napier’s Art Deco Trust, which runs the annual summer and winter Art Deco Festivals that attracts tens of thousands of visitors to the city, said it would be undergoing a restructure.
And in Nelson, financial pressures have forced World of WearableArt (WOW) to slash two-thirds of its staff.
Art Deco Trust chairman Michael Fowler said the amount of employees affected wouldn’t be confirmed ‘‘for at least a week’’, until consultation with staff had concluded.
Under its proposal the trust would scale back its tour and retail operations. The trust runs guided walks of Napier’s art deco CBD, vintage car tours and it has an art decothemed retail shop.
‘‘With New Zealand’s borders closed to international visitors and domestic travel curtailed for the foreseeable future, our retail and tour operations have been hit hard and the board has agreed a restructure is the only option to ensure we remain viable,’’ Fowler said.
Cruise ships – which bring about 100,000 visitors to the Hawke’s Bay region each summer – were possibly the biggest loss. A ‘‘huge’’ number of those people went on the walking tours and went to the store when in town, Fowler said.
‘‘These people, along with independent international tourists to Napier and people visiting family and friends in the Bay underpin the trust’s profitability. With a drop in this trade, the retail store is simply not financially sustainable and there will be significantly lower demand for our walking and vintage car tours.
‘‘The board agrees that if we are to ensure the future of the Art Deco Festivals and our heritage preservation activities, change is needed. That means proposing closing the retail store and scaling back our tours until the tourists return.’’
It’s anticipated about seven of the current 11 paid roles with the trust may be impacted.
‘‘This has been an incredibly tough decision for us to make. The Government’s wage subsidy has given us the breathing space to decide what makes sense for the future of our activities, based on the regional economic impact analysis available and conversations with key industry players,’’ Fowler said.
About 97 per cent of the Art Deco Festivals’ 40,000 annual visitors were Kiwis, so with international travel off the cards for now, Fowler said he was hoping to see a surge in interest in the upcoming 2021 summer festival. July’s winter festival would not go ahead this year.
In Nelson, WOW chief executive
David Tingey said after a consultation process, staff from across the company’s operations would be cut from 30 to just 10.
While the organisation’s awards show is staged in Wellington, all of the permanent staff are Nelsonbased. The restructuring would include the ‘‘mothballing’’ of the World of WearableArt and Classic Cars Museum in Nelson, which will be out of action for at least 12 to 18 months while its future viability was assessed.
Tingey said the cancellation of the 2020 World of WearableArt Awards Competition had created ‘‘an unprecedented challenge’’ for the organisation.
The cancellation had brought WOW’s income streams ‘‘to a grinding halt almost overnight’.
The 20 lost jobs included staff involved in the show, competition, production, marketing, commercial, finance, administration, wardrobe, museum and cafe aspects of the organisation.
‘‘This has been an incredibly tough decision for us to make.’’ Michael Fowler
Art Deco Trust chairman