Tourism Eastland says it meets targets

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TOURISM Eastland is meeting its key performance targets, says a six-monthly report presented to Gisborne District Council’s community development and services committee.

The report for the period ended November said highlights of the period included a 3 percent increase in visitor spend (compared to the average over the previous five years), a 5 percent growth in total visitor nights in private accommodation and a 38 percent rise in total visitor nights in September.

The organisation’s iconic events fund supported seven events, including Rhythm and Vines, the weekend of Gisborne Food and Wine Festival, East Coast Vibes and Sunsplash Summer Festival.

Tourism Eastland has previously held a contract for cruise ship visits.

At the same meeting tourism entrepreneur Frank Murphy criticised Tourism Eastland’s handling of cruise ships and said he could attract many more ship visits.

He also criticised the amount of council funding provided to Tourism Eastland considering, in his opinion, what they had achieved with it.

The report said the council would provide funding of $353,000 in the 2016-2017 financial year.

Councillor Larry Foster said there was now an opportunity to examine the council’s role with new tourism agency Activate Tairawhiti. The two had a good relationship.

The role of a tourism agency should be to encourage events and “clusters” of events, and attract more people to run events, he said.