Another bid to be made for marketing money

Nelson City Council plans to take $100,000 from its events funding pool as its share of the leverage needed to attract government funds for a joint venture tourism marketing campaign.

Nelson Tasman Tourism will make another bid this year for some of the money available to regional tourism organisations after missing out last year.

The Government made $5 million available for joint venture marketing in partnership with Tourism New Zealand last year, and was expected to do the same this year.

Councillors recently agreed through the draft annual plan process to provide Nelson Tasman Tourism with up to $100,000 this year, which could mean up to $500,000 would be available for a tourism marketing campaign targeted at attracting more Australians here.

The contribution, to come from the council's events strategy contestable fund, would be subject to Nelson Tasman Tourism being successful in its bid to attract a share of the government funds available, and that it matched the Nelson and Tasman councils' contributions "dollar for dollar".

It would also require $50,000 from operators within the local and national tourism industry.

The Tasman District Council recently agreed to include a similar request for $100,000 in its annual plan, despite misgivings over the lack of detailed information on how the money might be spent.

It is expected the joint venture scheme will continue this year, and on that basis, Nelson Tasman Tourism, which is owned by the Nelson and Tasman councils, has applied to each to include the $100,000 each in this year's funding allocation.

Nelson Mayor Kerry Marshall said the Australian market had grown dramatically, and had great potential.

"The reason we are doing this, is to ensure they [Nelson Tasman Tourism] don't miss out this time," Mr Marshall said.

Councillor Gail Collingwood asked whether taking the money from the events fund might be seen as negative.

"My experience is people come here because they know someone, not because they've seen a wonderful ad. I don't have enough facts that might support this, and I wonder what the true return might be," she said.

Councillor Pete Rainey said while he supported the money coming from the events fund, he was mindful that the city would need it for other things in the future. "Sooner or later something is going to come along that will need some support from this fund. I don't want to see it whittled down."

Councillor Mike Cotton asked who would spend the money and how. Councillor Ali Boswijk said she expected the campaign to be largely web-based.

Nelson Tasman Tourism chief executive Paul Davis told The Nelson Mail the final shape of the campaign had not yet been determined.

"All we have asked for is our shareholders to set aside funding that allows us to tap into a central government scheme.

"The amount of funding we get will determined what we do, but we do know that it won't be enough to run a television advertising campaign."

- © Fairfax NZ News