"We want to hear from all residents – permanent and holiday home owners. Everyone taking part in the surveys has the chance to enter a prize draw for two nights under the stars at Wairua Lodge (valued at $450) near Whitianga and we're hoping to get lots of ideas and feedback."
The community survey provides insight into residents' attitudes towards tourism and the benefits and costs associated with visitors.
The online surveys are being conducted by the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute based at Auckland University of Technology, and results are expected in late August.
The community survey is live now at www.communitysurvey.co.nz and closes on Friday, August 27.
Can you provide an overview of the project and explain what was the driver behind it?
Tourism in NZ has changed. Gone are the days of simply focusing on getting more visitors to the region and using how much they spend as the sole measure of success.
There's been a call for the tourism sector in New Zealand, particularly the regional tourism organisations (RTOs), to adopt a destination management approach. This means taking a holistic view of a place and managing it through the eyes of our communities and mana whenua, not just tourism governing bodies.
Therein lies how this project came about. The Government approved $26 million to ensure RTOs can continue to support the tourism sector and its communities.
Destination Coromandel received funding to develop the regions' first destination management plan.
Tourism Minister Stuart Nash stated that "destination management approaches need to balance environmental protection, emissions reduction and maintaining social licence alongside traditional marketing, local cultural and economic considerations".
This is exciting because it gives our communities their first opportunity to have a say in not only how we want to shape tourism as a region, but shine a light on what are the important issues to locals and use these as a cornerstone of a way forward.
This community survey forms a pivotal part of embedding our communities' voice in our destination management plan.
What are some of the known issues around tourism on the Coromandel from the point of view of communities?
This is exactly what we are trying to figure out through this community survey.
From data we have already, we know that despite having a high volume of visitors to our region during peak periods, they spend less than visitors in other regions, e.g. Queenstown and Wanaka.
This is likely because most summer visitors own holiday homes so their spending is limited to supermarkets, gas stations, and they spend their leisure time at the beach.
The purpose of this survey is to fill in the gap. We need to know what are the issues and challenges around tourism through the eyes of our communities and businesses.
We have just concluded a survey of business owners in our region so we're looking forward to seeing the results to have a clearer understanding of this.
I've heard it said 'please leave winter alone' meaning some would like to see a natural downturn outside of peak seasons, is this something that you would consider as part of a strategy? To proactively focus visitation around peak periods so there's a break in winter?
Yes, we asked this question of business owners in the business survey. We asked them do they operate all year round.
If not, is this due to a lack of demand or is this attractive to you as a lifestyle business?
Open during the summer, closed during winter. Our direction forward will be very much dictated by what the majority of our community and businesses say. This is why their input is so important.
What will answers be used for? And how will it influence the future of tourism here on the Coromandel?
Eluded to above. Results of the survey will be used to find the most common themes, which will be turned into strategic priorities for the destination management plan.
They will help us define priorities, establish a vision for our region and provide pathways for coming up with tangible actions that we can start to implement.
This isn't a one off, this is a new approach to tourism that isn't going away. This is simply the beginning of the conversation with our communities and mana whenua on their views and aspirations for our region.
What has been learned from other regions that have had impacts from tourism e.g. Queenstown and others?
If anything, Covid has given us the opportunity to pause and seriously think about what we want tourism to look like and take a moment to plan how we can achieve that.
If you don't want things to go back to how they were two years ago, this is your chance to voice what changes you want to see.
