Who should foot the bill?

Graeme Osborne.

According to Tourism Auckland, every dollar a visitor spends in New Zealand generates 25c toward the national tax take.

The agency would like a little bit of it back rather than expecting Auckland regional ratepayers to meet its bill.

CEO Graeme Osborne says there has to be a better way to fund the agency than "continually bludgeoning an already bruised and over-burdened ratepayer".

He has various options:

* a share of the GST take in the Auckland region;
* a fuel tax;
* a departure tax; and
* a bed tax.

But the fuel tax is a dead duck, the bed tax has a limited catchment, the disbursement of part of Auckland-generated GST a non-starter as far as the Government is concerned and the departure tax would be unpopular.

But who can blame Tourism Auckland for trying? It receives $3 million a year from three Auckland councils but, says Osborne, remains hopelessly underfunded to meet its challenges. Queenstown, by comparison, gets $3 million and Positively Wellington Tourism, some $5.6 million.

The Bringing the World to Auckland report - produced as part of the Metro Project Action Plan - says a regional agency is necessary to manage Auckland's transformation from a gateway into a world-class visitor destination.

"The most effective delivery mechanism would be an agency comprising two separately branded but integrated arms: Visit Auckland, responsible for managing, marketing and representing Auckland as a visitor destination, and Major Events Auckland, responsible for identifying and securing major events for Auckland," the report says.

An agency of this type would not come cheaply, but Osborne says it is time to look beyond the ratepayer to fund it.