A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
The front page of last night's paper would have caught the attention of all those with an interest in Gisborne's economy and many ratepayers who have questioned value-for-money in current tourism marketing spend.
No one actually in the tourism business would have a problem with the staff at the visitor
information centre. Their job is to look after the tourists when they get to Gisborne and in my experience of international tourists, both the old Tourism Eastland staff and the new staff perform well.
It is not in their job description to get tourists here. It is those spending promotional and marketing funds that (not before time) should, in the current climate, have to justify their high salaries and show the results of their marketing spend.
They do actually have time to reassess their recent past unimpressive efforts and maybe look in a new direction, such as high yield against high numbers.
The talk of a bubble with Australia opens up strong possibilities for Gisborne and the East Coast. It will be interesting to see how that is handled. My mother had a saying: “Don't tell me how to do it, show me.” I am already personally getting inquiries from Australia.
