Whakatāne operators at war with council over tourism funding cuts

RNZ News

19 hours ago

Eastern Bay tourism operators were able to attend the Trenz25 tourism expo held in Rotorua in May through Whakatāne District Council's links with Tourism Bay of Plenty.
Photo:
LDR / supplied
Tourism operators across the district are boycotting Whakatāne District Council for cutting funding to Tourism Bay of Plenty.
The Whakatāne council has previously contributed $85,000 annually to the council controlled organisation of Tauranga City and Western Bay District councils.
In response, a group of tourism operators across the district are boycotting all council-led tourism activity. This includes directing that all of their businesses be removed from council websites, that brochures and experiences be removed from the Whakatane i-Site, refusing to participate in promotional campaigns, event partnerships, and famils (familiarisation trips for agents) and calling for a full independent audit of the Whakatāne i-site and council tourism department.
Among the tourism operators supporting the boycott are Tio Ohiwa Harbour Cruises and Oyster Experience owner Wini Geddes, Kohutapu Lodge and Whirinaki Footsteps Nadine Toe Toe, Larni Hepi from Whaitaki, KG Kayaks' Kenny McCracken, Beachpoint Apartments' Alison Stern, One 88 On Commerce's Malcolm Glen, Awakeri Rail Adventures Paul Francis and Takutai Adventure Company's Ollie Dobbin.
Geddes said that more than 44 tourism operators and accommodation providers from around the Eastern Bay of Plenty would be hurt by Whakatāne council withdrawing this funding.
The contribution linked them to domestic and international tourism promotion through Tourism New Zealand and New Zealand Māori Tourism. The boycotters said the $85,000 amounted to 2.8 percent of the council's annual $3 million tourism budget and a mere 0.14 percent of its $59 million total annual operating budget.
Quoting Stats NZ, they said the region received $166 million in visitor spend annually, with approximately $20 million of that from international visitors. More than 10 percent of the workforce in Eastern Bay was through tourism.
Geddes said the decision had been made in public-excluded meetings with no consultation or communication with local tourist operators.
"We've only known about it for a month and the decision was made before Christmas with no consultation with the tourist operators at all."
She said all of Tio Ohiwa's business came through either Tourism Bay of Plenty or support from other Regional Tourism Operators around the country, in particular RotoruaNZ, a CCO of Rotorua Lakes District Council, which Whakatāne council did not pay into.
"In two weeks' time our connection to Tourism New Zealand will be cancelled and [the council] are trying to take it over by themselves."
A response from council chief executive Steven Perdia to a Local Goverment Official Information and Meetings Act request sent by two of the operators, Toe Toe and Hepi, said Whakatāne council had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and funding agreement with Tourism Bay of Plenty in 2014, but since this had expired in 2019 no further MOU had been developed.
The organisations had operated under a Letter of Intent to develop a revised MOU but "since the Whakaari eruption and Covid 19 and the catastrophic effects on the community and visitor economy with several business closures, both organisations have continued to work together in good faith".
He said the council had a strong desire to reduce rates' increases and during last year's long-term plan budget funding was stopped to both economic development agency Toi EDA and Tourism Bay of Plenty.
In a public-excluded section of its living together committee on 6 March this year, the council discussed reviewing the MOU with Tourism Bay of Plenty but to make cost savings decided to bring all tourism-related support in-house.
Perdia told Local Democracy Reporting the matters were discussed in a public-excluded forum because the debate involved commercially sensitive matters, including contracts and funding agreements with third parties.
"Council is trying to make itself a regional transport operator," Geddes said.
"It has got no strategic plan, nothing, and they're expecting us to teach them how to get into the industry."
Among the benefits of being part of Tourism Bay of Plenty was being included in the Bay of Plenty section of the Trenz Expo, New Zealand's biggest tourism trade show.
"We are now taking bookings from China, India and the rest of Asia, Europe and the United States from those expos. Even our accomodation providers. We fill our hotels with tourists coming in.
"[Whakatāne council] can't even get tickets to it."
The council did not respond to questions from the Beacon around how it intended to promote the district to international tourists.
Geddes said some tourism operators had already removed their brochures from the i-site.
Toe Toe said the council shouldn't be making critical decisions in a field they didn't understand.
"Tourism operators were completely left out in the cold around a decision that directly affects our businesses and survival."
Stern, from Beachpoint Apartments, said she felt the decision was very shortsighted and would end up costing the council more in the long run.
"If they don't want to focus on international tourism, then why are they planning to do exactly that - just without the professionals?" she said.
"And how do they think they'll do it better for less than $85,000? This is going to end up costing the ratepayers more, not less."
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.