Help coming for tourist areas
Tourism Minister Stuart Nash says government is working on a support package for regions who have traditionally been heavily reliant on international visitors.
He was unable to share details about the package in Invercargill yesterday, but said it would not be a wage subsidy as that would be unaffordable.
He hinted that he would speak about future support for the tourism industry during the Tourism Policy Conference in Queenstown today.
Government was focusing on to areas like Western Southland, Queenstown, Glacier Country, MacKenzie Country, and Kaiko¯ ura, he said.
While Auckland’s tourism industry had been the hardest-hit, business closures had not ‘‘gutted’’ the community as was the case in these regions.
‘‘We know Kiwis don’t like to drive,’’ Nash said, which was why towns far from Auckland weren’t seeing many domestic travellers.
When asked about a tentative date for a trans-Tasman travel bubble, Nash said cabinet was working out the details, but could not confirm when an announcement would be made.
He warned that while the bubble would bring Australian tourists to New Zealand, domestic tourists who had been backing their backyard, would likely take their dollars across the ditch.
Nash visited Southland in his capacity as minister if tourism, minister for small business, and minister of economic and regional development.
He met with Southland mayors in the morning, but Southland District mayor Gary Tong said discussions were on a high level.
Tong’s district includes Fiordland where businesses lost tourism trade due to widespread flooding in February 2021, just before the borders closed and cut them off from the international visitors who made up about 80 per cent of their economy.
He said his conversation with Nash laid the framework for the meeting the minister would have with Fiordland business leaders later in the day.
‘‘The minister is well aware of the challenges facing New Zealand, not just for tourism, but for small businesses as well,’’ he said.
Tong said he knew businesses were looking for answers about when the borders would reopen, but it was like asking: ‘‘How long is a piece of string?’’
Nash visited recipients of government funding for progress reports and spoke to the Department of Conservation about its Jobs for Nature programme, before travelling to Te Anau to meet with Fiordland business leaders.
Nash started his tour with a visit to the Invercargill CBD block redevelopment in which government investment $29.5 million.
Invercargill Central Ltd director Scott O’Donnell and site manager Bruce Middleton expressed concern that the Southern Institute of Technology had pulled out of building student accommodation at the site.
They were looking at options to replace them, O’Donnell said.
Middleton said the existing student accommodation in Invercargill was ‘‘chocka.’’
‘‘People are crawling on their hands and knees for accommodation,’’ he said, to which Nash replied: ‘‘Let me talk to some people.’’
Invercargill Central project director Geoff Cotton said big brand retailers had been hesitant to come to Invercargill because many of the available buildings were too big an earthquake risk.
‘‘So we fixed that,’’ he told the minister. The side of the development which will house the Farmers store is due to be completed by mid-2022, with a food corridor set to open some time around September 2022, and the rest of the stores to open by the end of 2022.
Nash called the development’s progress fantastic and said it was one of the ways in which New Zealand could diversify and future-proof its economy.
‘‘This is what we need to do to transform inner-city New Zealand,’’ he said.
‘‘The minister is well aware of the challenges facing New Zealand, not just for tourism, but for small businesses as well.’’ Tourism Minister Stuart Nash