Editorial: Vital to restore image of our Bay

The grounding of the Rena last October was an extraordinary event that has needed extraordinary responses.

The salvors and container recovery experts have had to go to great lengths to deal with a complex and dangerous recovery mission.

The volunteers have given up their time to help keep our beaches as clean as possible. And wildlife carers have also made sacrifices to ensure affected birds are cleaned and eventually released.

And then there's the economic impact. Tourism Bay of Plenty estimates the potential losses from the Rena total $1.2 million a day.

Fifty-five per cent of operators have been hit by the disaster, and 70 per cent report business was down over the Christmas-New Year period. They expect Rena to continue to affect them for another 18 months.

I was staggered when I read these figures. There can be no doubt people are hurting after the grounding.

So it made sense for Tourism Bay of Plenty, which is responsible for marketing our region to the world, to launch a campaign to encourage people to still come here and support local businesses.

The campaign's catchphrase is: "It's not called the Bay of Plenty for nothing."

It has spent or allocated $266,000 to the campaign, including the development of the concept, without securing the $600,000 needed to make it happen.

Yesterday it asked Tauranga City Council for that $600,000 - and was turned down.

Councillors made it clear they would not be spending ratepayer money to further help the organisation.

The council already contributes $775,000 to Tourism Bay of Plenty each year while the Western Bay of Plenty District Council puts in $169,000. Western Bay has already refused to put money into the campaign. This annual funding is a lot of money, and one could argue that our tourism agency needs to live within its means.

But given these are extraordinary times, I disagree.

Sure our councils are responsible for facilities and essential services. But do they not also have a vested interest to promote our region to the world in an effort to counter the devastating impact Rena has had on our reputation, environment and businesses?

Mayor Stuart Crosby says some of the $1 million donated by the charterer of the Rena, the Mediterranean Shipping Company, could be used to help fund the campaign.

But this remains to be seen. The $1 million is a paltry sum given the scale of the disaster and how it is spent is surrounded with rules set down by the shipping line.

Mediterranean Shipping Company should ultimately pay to restore our image but meantime both our councils should make significant contributions to this campaign to get the ball rolling.

If they don't, who else will?