In certain situations, there is nothing worse than doing nothing.
The situation as regards tourism promotion for Hawke's Bay is one of those.
Troubles afflicting Venture Hawke's Bay - which was responsible for both tourism promotion and regional development - have been well documented and little good will come from further raking them
over.
What occurred this year as a result of Venture's problems, however, was very interesting.
Hawke's Bay Wine Country Tourism Association galvanised around chairman Sam Orton and backed him to approach Hawke's Bay Regional Council with a plan to collaborate on forming a dedicated Regional Tourism Organisation (RTO).
The plan, in brief, was to have tourism operators put money into the new RTO so they had a real stake in the game. The RTO would be a nimble organisation led by real tourism brains. It would champion the Wine Country brand and message.
Regional councillors yesterday accepted that the status quo - doing nothing - was not appropriate and signed off on an interim agreement for a dedicated RTO. The decision is to their credit.
Tourism promotion alone is not going to be Hawke's Bay's economic saviour (some would argue that fast, reliable broadband is equally as important) but it is a big enough part of the puzzle that we need to take it seriously.
In 2011, we can expect to see a lot more activity led by Sam Orton, tourism consultant and interim board member George Hickton (the former head of Tourism New Zealand) and interim RTO manager Annie Dundas.
Don't expect miracles. What we are talking about is a long game - clarifying the story we want to tell the world and then telling it with consistency in the right places at the right times.
The encouraging news is that we already have a good reputation on which to build. We just need to start doing it.
