Hawke’s Bay Tourism secures its $1 million lifeline

The Art Deco Festival in Napier on Sunday. Three councils, including Napier, have given a lifeline to maintain Hawke's Bay Tourism while it explores other funding options. Photo / Connull Lang

Napier City Council has given life support to the Hawke’s Bay Tourism agency, as councillors voted to contribute a share of the $1 million needed to meet its minimum operating budget.

Hastings District Council and Central Hawke’s Bay District Council had already voted to back Hawke’s Bay Tourism with operational grants of $462,500 and $75,000 respectively.

Napier’s contribution of $450,000 was welcomed by Hawke’s Bay Tourism chair George Hickman, who said the last few months had been challenging for the organisation and its staff.

“We have lost some staff because of the uncertainty,” Hickman said.

“This is positive news. It gives us a lifeline to maintain Hawke’s Bay Tourism,” he said.

“We are extremely grateful to the three councils for giving us enough money to keep the light on while we find other funding sources.”

It comes as the Minister for Tourism and Hospitality, Louise Upston, announced on Thursday a $3m fund from the International Conservation and Tourism Visitor Levy to be used to attract international visitors to the regions.

Upston said she expected the regions to join up to accelerate work to promote their wider region, so visitors have opportunities to “explore multiple parts of our wonderful country”.

Hickman said they would “immediately be working on how Hawke’s Bay could access the funds to supplement what the councils have already committed”.

The money is needed after Hawke’s Bay Regional Council announced late last year that it would be pulling its funding for the regional tourism organisation from June 2025.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.