"The balance between people, place and profit needs to be just that, a balance. It appears the HBRC have taken a major swing to the environment.
"Why was tourism so important in the past for HBRC when the environmental issues noted in the plan are not new?
"Expecting businesses to pay for the reduction in funding while they already pay a differential rate of sometimes up to two times more than residential ratepayers when their building footprint can be much less.
"We have such a small number of large businesses (78 employing more than 100 staff) compared to the 11,500 who employ no staff and 4000 who employ less than five staff – this is a big ask, especially if the reduction in funding causes a downturn in tourism."
Hawke's Bay Wine Tourism founder and Sileni Estates chairman Sir Graeme Avery said the previous funding model had been successful.
"Tourism is a major provider of jobs globally, with around 10 per cent of all employees globally involved in the tourism industry.
"New Zealand is similar and tourism will be a major economic growth driver for the Country and HB region. It is crucial that Hawke's Bay Tourism is fully funded in order to maximise the tourism growth opportunities for the region."
The wider tourism industry tourism industry has also raised eyebrows at the proposal.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts pointed out that while tourism could help drive regional prosperity, that was something that did not just happen by chance.
"Spending on regional tourism marketing is an investment, not a cost.
"Hawke's Bay Tourism deserves a great deal of credit for the current 8 per cent annual growth in visitor spend in Hawke's Bay. The current $614m annual spend by visitors can be built to $1 billion a year by a well-funded Hawke's Bay Tourism.
"Slash Hawke's Bay Tourism's funding and Hawke's Bay will miss out on hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs in the coming years.
"Attracting domestic and international visitors is highly competitive and most regions around New Zealand are looking to increase their tourism funding support.
"Tauranga City Council is proposing a 63 per cent increase in funding for Tourism Bay of Plenty, because it has ambitious goals to grow the local visitor economy to $1.45 billion by 2028. Where is Hawke's Bay's ambition?"
Local Government New Zealand pointed out that different council across the nation had different arrangements for promoting regional tourism.
"LGNZ's 2016 economic development survey confirmed that around 30 of New Zealand's councils had a regional tourism organisation (RTO) which they either partly or fully fund", a spokesman said.
"From the same research nearly half of the councils were reviewing the arrangements for investment in regional tourism."
Councils were tasked about making the decisions best suited for them and their communities and the Long Term Plan was an opportunity for councils to review their funding and investment options for the council's activities, priorities and work programmes for the next 10 years.
However, the public would have the opportunity to put forward their thoughts on what was proposed.
"Councils need to distribute a summary of the draft LTP so that everyone in the community is aware of what is proposed and have the opportunity to make submissions.
"Submissions provide the council with important feedback on its future direction and priorities."
