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Hawke’s Bay Tourism may close in July 2025 after the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council confirmed it will provide no further funding.
Chief executive Hamish Saxton is warning of a significant decline in tourism and economic impact if funding ends.
Tourism adds $271 million to Hawke’s Bay’s GDP, with over 5000 jobs in the sector.
Hawke’s Bay Tourism is set to be wound up, with the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council this week telling the regional tourism organisation it will not provide it with any more funding past July 2025.
In a statement, a spokeswoman from Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) said the council had advisedHawke’s Bay Tourism that it had reconfirmed the 2024-2027 Long Term Plan decision to not fund the regional tourism organisation (RTO) beyond the current year.
A spokesman from Hawke’s Bay Tourism confirmed the letter from HBRC was received on Wednesday, December 4.
Regional council chairwoman Hinewai Ormsby acknowledged the difficult decisions councillors face for the coming year, emphasising their commitment to keeping the next rate rise as low as possible.
“We understand that this decision may be disappointing for some, but we had to prioritise our core responsibilities and their impact on the economic wellbeing of our region,” Ormsby said in the statement.
Hawke's Bay Tourism CEO Hamish Saxton wants to know who would not see benefit in Hawke’s Bay having a competitive tourism presence across the country. Photo / Simon Cartwright
Hawke’s Bay Tourism CEO Hamish Saxton believes the region will see a significant decline if funding for the RTO from HBRC ends in 2025.
Saxton said without the RTO there will be “29 other regions who are going to be reminding people of the benefits of going there over Hawke’s Bay”.
Saxton gave as an example the Waikato region, which when its RTO closed from 2006 to 2011, experienced an immediate decline in tourist numbers and also a significant decline in confidence for investors and entrepreneurs.
“Tourism Waikato got resurrected but in being resurrected it took another three, four years to get back to where they had been five or six years prior,” Saxton said.
“So even if you’re out of the marketplace as an organisation for two years or three years or whatever, to rebuild that is going to take a significant period of time.”
When asked if Hawke’s Bay Tourism could be funded privately, Saxton said it couldn’t.
“The challenge is that if you were to try to fund something like this privately ... there’s a lot of work in trying to ascertain which businesses are specifically not impacted by the benefits of visitors coming to our region.
“Who does not benefit from a website that has over 600,000 visitor sessions per annum? Who in this region would not see benefit in Hawke’s Bay having a competitive presence across the country? There is one organisation in this region ... that stands up and collectively drives messages of ‘come to Hawke’s Bay now’.”
Saxton said Hawke’s Bay Tourism currently boasts a total database of 28,700 email subscriptions and a reach of 2.2 million people across its social media channels.
It has 164 full members, 74 additional businesses advertising on its site and 14 support partners that are businesses connected to the visitor economy but which don’t offer visitor experiences.
CEO of Hawke’s Bay Regional Economic Development Agency Lucy Laitinen said tourism added $271 million directly into Hawke’s Bay’s GDP and “a lot more if we think of the wider economic benefits for associated industries and business” with more than 5000 people working in the tourism sector in Hawke’s Bay.
Laitinen said Hawke’s Bay ratepayers “get a good bang for our buck” in spending $8.20 per capita for Hawke’s Bay Tourism compared with an average of $21.90 per capita for other regions in NZ with RTOs.
“Hawke’s Bay Tourism is the reason why last year we were named a Great Wine Capital, one of only 12 in the world. We should be capitalising on that and getting more visitors here.
“If we default back to thinking that we are only supporting a small segment of our business community by funding Hawke’s Bay Tourism then we are missing the bigger picture and the contribution that tourism makes to the wider economy.
“If we lose Hawke’s Bay Tourism we can resign ourselves to losing visitors. If we lose visitors, we lose jobs and money. It is as simple as that.”
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region, along with pieces on art, music, and culture.
