Selling Waikato's tourism assets

Busy times lie ahead for Waikato’s re-emerging regional tourism organisation – not least a change of name to Hamilton and Waikato Regional Tourism – which is marketing the area as a ‘‘soft adventure’’ destination, reports Felicity Wolfe.

PETER DRURY/Waikato Times

REGIONAL DRIVE: Kiri Goulter, the regional tourism manager for Hamilton and Waikato Regional Tourism and Hamilton International Airport, is busy organising the launch of a new website to promote Waikato tourism and also a marketing promotion in Australia over the next few weeks.

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Almost a year after she was appointed as regional tourism manager for Hamilton and Waikato Regional Tourism and Hamilton International Airport, the most challenging times still lie ahead for Kiri Goulter.

She says she has an excellent working relationship with the airport's five shareholding Waikato councils, but all are yet to decide if they will fund the fledgling regional tourism organisation.

The next few months will be cruicial as she puts together an ongoing funding plan, while also launching a marketing campaign in Australia.

When asked about the challenges of rebuilding a regional tourism organisation (RTO) which had been labelled ineffective when dismantled by Hamilton City Council in 2006, Ms Goulter said she preferred to focus on the future.

Hamilton mayor Bob Simcock said the previous RTO had fallen victim to a funding cut made when the city ran short on money. He could not say if there would be an amalgamation of the council's Visit Hamilton promotional team with the RTO nor when a final decision would be made on any city financial contribution.

''That is a formal discussion and process each council has yet to go through.''

However, he said there was ''no question [Hamilton City] council will be involved in tourism'' and said its events strategy was about encouraging people to visit the city and said Ms Goulter's views on the lack of commercial tourism opportunities on the Waikato River and around the wider region were being taken seriously.

''I have seen a draft report . . . there is a shortage of commercial product,'' Mr Simcock said.

Ms Goulter is widely acknowledged as having the right experience after 15 years working with the industry, first with Rodney District Council, then moving further north for a role at Destination Northland aimed at building capability in its tourism industry.

More recently she has worked with the national tourism body, Tourism New Zealand (TNZ), developing regional strategy and products and working with the Qualmark tourism quality assurance programme.

However, she jumped at the opportunity to rebuild a regional tourism organisation in Waikato. ''To be able to move a region forward is my passion,'' Ms Goulter said.

Passion is something tourism in Waikato has struggled to maintain over the past few years. The loss of its RTO in 2006 was linked to 30,000 fewer people staying in commercial accommodation in the former Tourism Waikato territory for the year ended July 2008.

At the time it was the only region in the country to see a decline.

When Air New Zealand then gave up its international services to and from the region last April, Hamilton International Airport and its five shareholding councils fought back, got budget international airline Pacific Blue on side and brought in Ms Goulter.

It was a dual role.

First, she was in charge of building a good working relationship between Pacific Blue and the airport.

The other part - rebuilding an RTO from scratch - is keeping Ms Goulter busy with frequent meetings with tourism operators and international media groups and rebuilding contacts with overseas travel agents.

Over the past 10 months Ms Goulter and Hamilton Airport and Waikato and Hamilton marketing manager Rebecca Evans have made more progress than even they counted on. The Tourism Waikato brand has been consigned to the past - the new branding ''Hamilton and Waikato Regional Tourism'' was voted on by shareholders five months ago.

Ms Goulter spent the first couple of months working on a business plan with the airport board.

Since that was approved she has been focused on getting the website online to have a platform from which to launch Hamilton and Waikato to both potential visitors and the tourism trade.

That site was not without contention as the development contract was awarded to a firm in Wellington.

King Street Advertising chief executive Chris Williams was not concerned that his firm did not get the contract but felt it should have been awarded to a Waikato business.

''It's no different to Tourism New Zealand getting an English company to do their work,'' he said.

While he had faith in Ms Goulter's tourism experience and knowledge, he felt it was a missed opportunity for the fledgling organisation to gain ''local buy-in''.

''They will need all the help and advocacy they can get from local businesses,'' Mr Williams said. Ms Goulter said the project, understood to be worth around $70,000, was tendered fairly and independently reviewed.

''Our preference is to give work locally but in this case it was awarded outside the region,'' Ms Goulter said.

She said, however, future work on the site was likely to be done locally.

Tourism groups have raised the $250,000 minimum contribution to take part in a marketing push which is being matched dollar for dollar by central government.

The $500,000 total will be used to showcase Pacific Blue's services into Hamilton and promote Waikato's "soft adventure" tourism potential.

"It's things like hiking, caving, kayaking ... enjoying the natural environment," Ms Goulter said.

"That's what this region is about."

She said it was about joining forces with neighbours and although Hamilton and Waikato was not part of the Central Park regional promotion area, which comprises seven other RTOs including Destination Lake Taupo Coromandel, Ruapehu, Lake Taupo and Waitomo – all of which fall within Waikato's regional boundary.

Ms Goulter said Central Park was a re-branding of the Great New Zealand Touring Route and there had been discussions with the group about future co-operation.

The group includes Hamilton International Airport, Pacific Blue, Tourism Bay of Plenty, Destination Waitomo, Ruapehu Alpine Lifts and Tourism Dunedin.

Rotorua International Airport now has Air New Zealand flights which the group is keen to promote.

Central Park spokesman and Destination Lake Taupo general manager Scott Pearson said there was room for Hamilton and Waikato to play a part in the group – as Tourism Waikato had in the past.

"It was a member of the Great New Zealand Touring Route but when it folded its membership ceased," Mr Pearson said.

While the short-term goal of Central Park was to encourage the visibility of the Sydney to Rotorua flights he saw there would be merit in promoting two gateways on the future.

Macro regional alliances were being encouraged by government and also made sense when marketing to tourists who did not care about district boundaries.

He was pleased with the reappearance of a Waikato RTO.

"It is good to see Hamilton and Waikato has reformed as an RTO," Mr Pearson said.

Tourism Waikato "left a big hole when it disappeared".

Waitomo Adventures director Nick Andreef said there had been a noticeable increase in Australians visiting the area since Ms Goulter arrived and definitely more tourism media about the place.

"We have seen about a 10 per cent increase in Australian visitors [from the previous year]. Overall numbers are very much up," he said of his cave adventure company.

Having the RTO was important for having contact with TNZ, eduction of overseas travel agents and access to international media.

As a tourism area, Waitomo felt aligned to Waikato and Hamilton but had been forced to look towards Rotorua and Central Park to get promotion.

He was excited about the Australian marketing drive which will begin in a few weeks time.

Having exceeded industry expectations to date, Ms Goulter and Ms Evans are now busy working on the dual launches of the Australian marketing campaign and of the website over the next few weeks.

After that there is still work to be done before the fledgling RTO really takes off.

"Our next piece of work will be the strategy and structure of our regional tourism organisation in the longer term," Ms Goulter said.

"We will be looking at all the structures required to support it [the RTO] and how that will be funded.

- © Fairfax NZ News