The Tourism Problem

Last week during a submission on the Hawke's Bay Regional Council 10 year plan, Wine Country Tourism revealed the disastrous state of our visitor industry. In addition to pointing out our visitor numbers have been in decline for 10 years, they also disclosed Hawkes Bay has one of the lowest international visitor numbers of any region in the country. This latter point should not be a surprise because the situation had been pointed out to all 3 councils just two years ago by consulting companies APR and BERL as part of their airport investigations.

Clearly the true position totally challenges the endless feel good PR pushed out by the councils and others who want us to think things are hunky dory. Of course if they had revealed the truth it would have raised serious questions about the competence of those whose job it is to drive the visitor industry.

HBWCT were asking the Regional Council to inject some urgency into the coordination of tourism activities and to expedite the development of a comprehensive visitor strategy. The Regional Council manages Hawke's Bay Inc which was formed in 2005 as a successor to Vision 20/20 and is funded equally by the 3 councils.

During the presentation it was disclosed they do not expect to have a visitor strategy until 2010/11 begging the question why they are in charge of tourism at all? Since its inception Hawke's Bay Inc seem to have accomplished little so it is probably unrealistic to expect an effective tourism strategy.

In the past 4½ years over $7 million of ratepayer funding has been poured in, yet little of value has been delivered other than a rumored $120 000 salary for the Chief Executive and mushrooming staff numbers. Clearly there has been major people problems because in spite of the remuneration it took nearly a year to find the first chief executive who then left within a year, and was replaced by an expatriate bought back from Singapore at great expense. He also left on completion of his obligatory 12 months. So we are now onto the 3rd Chief Executive in just over 4 years.

Our new Government has correctly identified Australia as our best future visitor opportunity. Visitor numbers from Australia have held up well in these troubled times. As fuel prices start to escalate again Australians will find trans Tasman travel quite attractive compared to longer haul trips to Asia, Europe and North America. Relative proximity makes New Zealand attractive but the problem for Hawkes Bay we have no affordable or convenient links. If we want Hawke's Bay to be a part of this we need to get real about travel. The indisputable reality is the modern overseas visitor travels by air, and Hawke's Bay needs decent air services if we are to succeed in attracting a share of these people.

Of course we can't compete because we have an airport that quite simply is inadequate. Visitors arrive in this country to places where there are modern innovative and affordable air services. They normally have a choice of airlines. With choice comes competition, ample seats, and affordability. Not so for Hawke's Bay. Here we are at the mercy of Air New Zealand a monopoly supplier who can provide as many or few seats as they choose, at what ever price they decide on.

For example last week I booked a flight to Auckland for the last Saturday of August, some 14 weeks away. The best price I could get for a one way flight was $160. Last week Emirates were offering return international flights from Christchurch or Auckland to Sydney for just $159. No wonder our visitor numbers are dropping.

We need to question our spending priorities. In addition to funding the Regional Council controlled HB Inc both Napier and Hastings provide significant budgets for visitor activities so total expenditure is much greater than the $7 million spent on HB Inc so far. Had this money been used to upgrade the airport we would now been a position to move forward and cater for the real needs of travelers when economic conditions improve. As it is we are still locked in a 1960's time warp.

There is no point in continuing to spend money trying to entice people to come here if we are not also prepared to provide the necessary transport infrastructure. If we don't want visitors then let stop pretending we do and at least save the money we are now wasting.