Kaikoura tourism enters third ‘winter’
Kaikoura businesses are desperate for an extension to the wage subsidy that has helped keep them afloat since the November earthquake.
Kaikoura district recovery manager Danny Smith said a further extension of the wage subsidy for earthquake-affected businesses was critical.
The $500-a-week subsidy for full-time workers is due to end in just over a week and he is anxiously awaiting a response to a request for it to continue until the road north reopens.
Most Kaikoura businesses were relying on the subsidy, Smith said.
‘‘What we’re hearing is that they are sitting on about 30 per cent of their normal income on average and some are below that.
‘‘We’re calling it the ‘three winters’ up here.
‘‘A lot of businesses will have to take a hard look at themselves if that subsidy doesn’t come through’’.
A spokesman for Tourism Minister Paula Bennett said the Government was prepared to consider proposals for further support for the top of the South Island following the November earthquakes. However, no decisions had been made yet.
Tourism spending in North Canterbury, which includes the Kaikoura and Hurunui districts, was down $7.6m (18 per cent) in January compared with the previous year.
Smith said the Government needed to consider Kaikoura’s isolation from the tourism market with the road to the north being cut off, but the impact was being felt further afield as well.
‘‘People in Blenheim are even suffering. A lot [of visitors] are coming off the ferry and turning before they even hit the town. I was talking to a food business up there and he said they’d had a noticeable dropoff in sales.’’
Destination Kaikoura general manager Glenn Ormsby said that without the wage subsidy he was unsure if they could keep the local i-Site open. ‘‘Whale Watch and Dolphin Encounter trips are full, but they’re only doing three trips a day, not the 15 or 16 they would normally be doing at this time of year. We saw a slight increase over Chinese New Year but that’s gone now.’’
KiwiRail has also taken a $12m hit from the Kaikoura earthquake.
That resulted largely from a drop in domestic freight volumes with the closure of the main trunk line, and the cancellation of the scenic Coastal Pacific passenger service.