Bryce Heard: Building a pathway back for Rotorua

It will take a lot of clever mahi to dismantle the new industry without incurring more human suffering, writes Bryce Heard. Photo / Felix Desmarais

OPINION

The spotlight has been on Rotorua and while we wouldn't normally welcome bad news, it has helped shine a spotlight on the issues.

And as a result, there has been extensive and wide-reaching discussion, which we all hope will result in collective solutions.

But despite this situation, it has also provided an opportunity to reinforce that it doesn't define us in Rotorua.

Rotorua has been the tourist diamond for New Zealand since the late 1800s. Rotorua's tourism was built off the back of our unique natural advantages.

These include our awe-inspiring geothermal activity, with its wellbeing, therapeutic, and beauty treatments; Māori culture and the manaakitanga of our people; a plethora of pristine lakes, rivers, mountains, and forests; all this flanked by ski fields to the west and the mighty South Pacific Ocean to the east.

We offer a more diverse set of tourist attractions than any other New Zealand city.

These advantages stand as tall today as ever before. They will endure any man-made ripples that we sometimes make along the way.

When the Covid lockdowns arose, it seemed like a good idea to take the (then) small numbers of homeless off the streets to relative "safety" in temporarily disused motels for "emergency" accommodation.

Nobody predicted the blowout in numbers and the size of the problem that has resulted. No one set out to damage Rotorua.

Rotorua's Golden Mile of empty accommodation was an obvious solution and when MSD began to help by paying generous rents on behalf of the needy applicants, the floodgates were opened.

An industry to help the homeless has sprung up over two and a half years, but is now accused of causing human suffering. It will take a lot of clever mahi to dismantle the new industry without incurring more human suffering.

So instead of complaining and playing a blame game – let's all focus on the remedies.

Quite perversely, we have been handed a real opportunity to redress the problem – by a fresh set of developing circumstances:

• The facts have been revealed about the size and implications of the problem.

• In a month's time, we will have a new council and mayor.

• Government appears to be committing to engage with the community to fix the problem.

Maybe this is the perfect storm that we needed to fix the problem. Let's seize this opportunity.

Now is the time to get Rotorua back to its mantra of the tourist mecca of the Southern Hemisphere. Do it right and Rotorua will rise from the ashes like the great phoenix that we are.

It is the time for strong, unifying, courageous, and visionary leadership.

Bryce Heard is chief executive of the Rotorua Business Chamber