Tourism marketing activities will no be longer part of the business of Horizons Regional Council. Chief executive Michael McCartney said that, after consultation with interested parties, the council had opted to cease its involvement in tourism marketing and withdraw funding. Any future role Horizons has in tourism will be related only toits environmental management functions. "We can best support the tourism by managing the land, air and water resources well so that the environmental qualities visitors enjoy are there for the future," Mr McCartney said. The regional tourism organisation, Destination River Region, was formed when Tourism New Zealand decided to work with regional authorities to assist the promotion of different regions overseas. Destination River Region covered Ruapehu, Rangitikei, Wanganui, Manawatu, Palmerston North, Tararua and Horowhenua districts. Management of DRR had been undertaken by Horizons until last year when it was contracted out to Destination Manawatu until July 2005 - the end of the council's current financial year. Mr McCartney said the council now wanted to get out of the destination management business and refocus its efforts on higher priority issues such as flood repairs and environmental management. "Unless we keep on ratcheting up rates we simply cannot afford to do every thing. We have to make some hard decisions about what our priorities are and at the moment tourism is not one of them," he said.
