Ngati Whatua push on with tourist venture

By JON STOKES

Backers of a $16 million Maori tourism development planned to open in early 2006 are undeterred by the failure of Suzanne Paul's cultural venture Rawaka.

Auckland iwi Ngati Whatua o Orakei have no interest in buying the failed venture.

Ngati Whatua chief executive Tiwana Tibble said the iwi was concentrating on it's own development - Te Pa - a joint venture between the tribe's trust board and private company Oceania Attractions.

The $16 million development, being built in a valley about 300m west of the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial, will have a 540-seat auditorium and run a three-times-a-day show featuring live music and dance performances and images projected on to a 15m-high "waterscreen".

It will include a restaurant with a Maori-Pacific menu, a "living village" showcasing Maori carvers and weavers, a native plants nature track and a souvenir shop.

Mr Tibble said he was confident Te Pa would be successful, despite Rawaka's demise.

"From what we know, Rawaka was not well designed and thought out."

Mr Tibble said that, subject to resource consent hearings, the development was expected to open in early 2006.

Acting Auckland City reserves board chairwoman councillor Juliet Yates said the board supported changes the developers made to reduce the scale and impact of the venture on the land.

As a result, the developers will move to the next stage - to seek resource consent.

Rotorua's Maori tourism gurus, the Tamaki brothers, are not interested in taking over Rawaka either.

But Tourism Auckland is confident the failure is not reflective of cultural tourism potential in the city.

Suzanne Paul's ambitious Maori village project on the North Shore went into voluntary liquidation this week, after weeks of speculation it was in trouble.

Liquidators hope to sell the business, in the old Fisherman's Wharf building at Northcote Pt, as a going concern.

Mike Tamaki, who with brother Doug run Rotorua's Tamaki Maori Village and Christchurch's Tamaki Heritage Group, said the pair were unlikely to make a bid for the venture, regardless of its bargain-basement price.

Mr Tamaki said the site's location and Auckland's lack of recognition as a cultural tourist destination made the proposition unlikely.

"I wouldn't have thought the location was right. I don't know if that's the right experience in Auckland.

"What people have to remember is there is about 150 years of marketing in the international global travelling market that Rotorua is the cultural hub of New Zealand. To turn that around is going to take a fair bit of money and time.

"We have in mind to come to Auckland, but we are yet to decide exactly what it is."

He said the venture's failure highlights how tough the tourism market can be.

"People think it is easy, put bits and pieces together, and tourist come flocking. It is going to take a good two to three years before you even start to get an interest in a new development."

Tourism Auckland chief executive Graeme Osborne said that international tourists stayed an average of 10 days in Auckland, and the potential for cultural tourism was huge.

Rawaka's failure highlighted the importance of appealing to a broader market than just international tourists, he said, and to insisting on remaining "authentic, truthful, credible" and providing "unique cultural integrity".

"It would be flawed logic to assume the failure of Rawaka is indicative of the wider Auckland cultural tourism market," Mr Osborne said.