$105 million tourism plan with accredited isolation

ROTORUA: Judith Collins was in the tourist hot spot of Rotorua yesterday to unveil National’s $105 million tourism package.

National wants to launch a national tourism festival and an accreditation process for private accommodation providers to become managed isolation facilities as part of its tourism promise.

She said the Infrastructure Bank would sit alongside its Tourism Accelerator Fund to focus on regional projects. She said it would use its infrastructure bank and create a tourism accelerator fund to develop the sector in the absence of international tourists.

Under the scheme, tourism operators would be eligible to apply for up to 70% of the funding for projects that meet the criteria of increasing demand within the tourism sector.

The minimum coinvestment expected from the private sector would be 30%.

National announced it would also regulate freedom camping and give the massive tourism conference Trenz $5 million over the next two years.

It is also offering the sector a New Zealand tourism festival modelled off the Real New Zealand Festival that ran over Rugby World Cup 2011, and involved more than 1200 homegrown events in 86 towns and centres nationwide.

‘‘National will do it again at a bigger scale to assist the recovery of the tourism industry and regional economies.’’

If elected, she said,

National would also work with the Lotteries Commission, Tourism New Zealand and industry bodies to progress a programme of events and funding for this event to be held next year.

The party also promised to:

Open travel bubbles with Covidfree neighbouring countries ‘‘when they are safe to do so’’. It did not give a timeline on this.

Allow accommodation providers to gain approval to act as managed isolation facilities.

Investigate the possibility of cruise ships operating domestically in New Zealand for New Zealand travellers over summer, particularly to popular destinations such as Fiordland and the Bay of Islands.

Establish the Tourism 2025 Fund to bring together unallocated funding from the tourism infrastructure fund and from the international visitor levy.

Ensure there are no new bed taxes and put a freeze on any more government levies and charges on tourists.

Begin work to establish two new National Parks — one on the Coromandel Peninsula and one in the Catlins — and build two new Great Walks.

❛ National will do it again at a bigger scale to assist the recovery of the tourism industry and regional economies