Tourism welcomes $200m funding boost

The tourism industry is largely enthusiastic about the latest

$200m assistance package, despite much of the money going to just five South Island regions.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) chief executive Chris Roberts said they were past general handouts and wage subsidies, and the assistance would help struggling operators to survive.

Just over half of the money

($108.5m) has been committed to Fiordland, South Westland, Queenstown Lakes, Mackenzie District and Kaiko¯ura with funding for psychological support, reopening mothballed businesses, and diversifying economies heavily reliant on tourism.

Roberts said TIA agreed with the targeted nature of the ‘‘recovery and reset’’ plan announced yesterday by Tourism Minister Stuart Nash because it recognised the varied impact of the border closure. A recent TIA survey of

333 operators showed a 40 per cent drop in the workforce, with the lower South Island worst affected. Applied across the wider tourism sector, those figures equated to 90,000 job losses in the past year. But Roberts concedes businesses in some areas may feel hard done by.

‘‘Undoubtedly there will be differing views in other parts of the country that may feel that those five regions are getting too big a share of the funding, and those regions may feel that they need even more.’’

Auckland operator Ben Thornton of Bush and Beach tours said that while the package might stem the bleeding for others, there was nothing in it for him ‘‘and my pockets are only so deep.’’

He has removed seating from his tour vehicles to do furniture removal work for a local charity assisting needy families.

Bookings from Australia were starting to trickle in from spring, but there was a long way to go before they really picked up.

‘‘I’m going to be $250,000 in the red by the end of the year.’’