Way to float city's boat

So tell me, Bruce - what's the difference between the Eiffel Tower and the Waimarie? Think about it ...

Well, apart from the obvious - one is a tower firmly grounded in Paris and the other is a paddle steamer floating on the Whanganui River, both have a lot in common.

Both are ferrous metal structures built more than 100 years ago. Both have long outlived their original purpose, both have achieved iconic status as visitor attractions in their respective cities and both have had detractors who see no value in them.

Truly, when M. Eiffel built his famous tower on the banks of the Seine, it wasn't commissioned as a work of art or even as a functional utility to be used by the citizens of Paris. The locals said it was a hideous monstrosity, a blight on the landscape, the only thing it should be was gone - tres vite!

It was built as an entrance arch for the 1889 World's Fair, quite simply to prove the practicality of wrought iron as a structural material. After the exhibition, there were rancorous arguments that it should be dismantled and no longer blight the charming cityscape of Paris.

And the cost? Millions of euros every few years to paint it.

But history has proven the detractors wrong, and good old Gustave Eiffel to be right. It is the first thing we foreigners think of when we picture Paris - above the Musee D'Orsay, Notre Dame and even the Louvre.

Not many will travel to Paris just to see the Eiffel Tower, just like few would travel to Wanganui just to see the paddle steamer. But they are both a part of the fabric of their respective cities - a vital part of the package that makes the city attractive to visitors.

Why people remember that city and tell their friends that they had a good time there. Why people come to the city, and fill the motels, restaurants and pubs. And come back again and again.

To quote a leading manager in the tourism industry in Otago: "The paddle steamer is part of Wanganui now - it's what you're famous for."

The message here is: don't underestimate the value of a dollar spent on your tourism infrastructure. Spent wisely, your dollar will come back to you many times over.

In Dunedin, they have the Taieri Gorge Railway. It has been running for 25 years now and, in its early days, required funding from the city council. It is now standing on its own two feet, albeit experiencing the economic difficulties common to all tourism operators in this country, if not the world.

But the people of Dunedin know that things will get better, and are prepared to continue to support the huge amount of work and investment that a group of volunteers made when the railway was set up in the 1980s. They know they have to keep their city attractive to visitors - to not kill the golden goose just because they have run out of ducks.

Everybody in the district benefits from living in a centre that has a tourism package such as we have.

Perhaps more consideration needs to be given to which businesses benefit from a stronger "Destination Wanganui".

I can already hear the motelliers and restaurateurs crying foul, just as I can hear the domestic ratepayers saying that rates are already too high. But wisely raised, and even more wisely spent, dollars are an investment for our future as a city in which we can bring up our kids, and keep them here once they leave school.