THERE'S been a bit of talk on social media and around town over the last couple of days about the Rotorua cafes and restaurants that chose not to open on New Year's Day.
According to business owner Tak Mutu, who works in the tourism industry, the lack of dining options
for tourists on Thursday was "embarrassing".
He has a point. Tourism is of course hugely important to Rotorua and we want our visitors to go away impressed and raving about their experience, not talking about the "ghost town" they encountered trying to get lunch. The negative experiences are often those we remember most about a holiday so "closed" signs are perhaps not the best look for the city, as Mr Mutu says.
On the other hand, business owners are free to run their businesses as they see fit. If they, presumably experts in their own industry, don't believe it's worth their while opening then that's up to them. They can't be forced to open, nor should they be.
Being a statutory holiday, staff would have to be paid time-and-a-half, which in some New Zealand cities is recouped by charging customers' surcharges. But that's rare in Rotorua where it's generally accepted a surcharge would be off putting to customers.
