Call for cohesive strategy

Clutha District community leaders are calling for a cohesive tourism strategy for the Catlins following the recent launch of the new visitor centre at Curio Bay.

Clutha District mayor Bryan Cadogan was one of many community leaders, including dignitaries and MPs, who attended the opening of the $5 million Tumu Toka Curioscape visitor centre.

He was impressed with the meeting of minds that made the South Catlins Charitable Trust project a reality, and said the influx of tourists to the Catlins region ‘‘needs to have a tangible financial benefit for locals’’.

About 150,000 people a year visit Curio Bay making it the second biggest tourist attraction in south after Milford Sound.

‘‘Curioscape certainly enhances the prospect of making tourists stay and pay.

‘‘It’s a tremendous facility that provides interaction at a cutting edge level. The whole region needs to consider what part we are going to play in the strategy.’’

Invercargill-based Labour List MP Liz Craig, who also spends time at the family farm at Romahapa in south Otago, said the visitor centre would help ensure that tourists would not just fly in and out of Queenstown, but want to stay in the Catlins.

DOC had made the unusual move of establishing a car park and toilets within the development, despite the fact it does not own the land, to future-proof it.

Clutha-Southland NZ First List MP Mark Patterson said there needed to be a co-ordinated approach to providing this sort of infrastructure throughout the Catlins, and the Government’s Provincial Growth Fund was one source. ‘‘We absolutely need to leverage the PGF to enhance our tourism portfolio.

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