Bay tourism body hoping for $700,000 injection

Hawke’s Bay Tourism could receive a cash injection of up to $700,000 from the Government’s Strategic Tourism Assets Protection Programme.

Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced on Thursday up to $20.2 million in funding has been made available for New Zealand’s 31 Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs). The funding is for each RTO to continue destination management, marketing and planning.

Hawke’s Bay Tourism can apply for up to $700,000 and chief executive Hamish Saxton said the funding recognises the important work of RTOs and their value to the local economy.

“We are grateful to the minister and to the Government for this as it also recognises that at this time, local government and ratepayers cannot fund the investment required to reignite domestic tourism on their own,” Saxton said.

“Our role as Hawke’s Bay’s RTO is to ensure our region gets more than its fair share of visitors in a highly competitive environment.

“However, our biggest concern has always been how can we maintain and build on that momentum and investment. This funding allows us to develop a strategy that can deliver real, tangible results for our local visitor economy.”

In 12 months to February 2020, domestic tourism injected $526m into the Hawke’s Bay economy.

Hawke’s Bay Tourism has a membership of more than 180 members and an annual turnover of approximately $2.2m, of which $1.5m is an investment from Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.

Saxton said they will be applying for as much of the $700,000 fund as they can, if not all of it.