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.
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.
Tourism operators across the eastern Bay of Plenty are boycotting Whakatāne District Council for cutting funding to Tourism Bay of Plenty.
The 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 districtare boycotting all council-led tourism activity.
This includes directing that all of their business listings be removed from council websites, that brochures and experiences be removed from the Whakatāne i-Site, a refusal 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, Nadine Toe Toe of Kohutapu Lodge and Whirinaki Footsteps, 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 more than 44 tourism operators and accommodation providers around the eastern Bay of Plenty would be hurt by Whakatāne council withdrawing this funding.
Aerial view of Whakatāne. The district council has just cut its funding to Tourism Bay of Plenty.
The boycotters said the $85,000 amounted to 2.8% of the council’s annual $3 million tourism budget and a mere 0.14% of its $59m total annual operating budget.
Stats NZ said the region received $166m in visitor spend annually, with about $20m of that from international visitors.
More than 10% of the workforce in the eastern Bay was employed in 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 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 deliberations, funding was stopped to both the economic development agency Toi EDA and Tourism Bay of Plenty.
In a public-excluded section of its living together committee on March 6 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.
Geddes said a benefit 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 Whakatāne Beacon around how it intended to promote the district to international tourists.
