Liz Read: Closed doors a bad look for Bay

Too many coffee haunts, eateries and restaurants were shut in the Bay over the holiday period.

According to official figures, Hawke's Bay's tourism industry is booming with international and domestic visitor numbers at an all-time high.

This is fantastic news for our region and as accommodation operators, borne out by our own experience with this summer being our best yet for visitors staying at our country apartment.

The great weather has helped, but so too has the sterling job of Hawke's Bay Tourism and all those who stage the fabulous selection of sporting, arts, culinary, music and cultural events that fill up the long summer calendar.

We escaped to the Bay from Auckland four years ago and in almost every way our expectations have been met. We enjoy the wonders of the natural landscape that change with the seasons, the delicious abundance of New Zealand's best locally produced food and wine, the endless walkways, beaches and rivers that make up this playground, the welcoming locals and the stunning climate.

We love the opportunity to share all that we've discovered with visitors who stay at our place - tourists from overseas and Kiwis visiting the Bay, some for the first time.

But there's one aspect of Hawke's Bay we simply cannot fathom. Why is it that so many cafes, eateries, restaurants and bars are closed or have limited hours when the region is knee-deep in visitors?

One evening before Christmas, we decided to take ourselves for a drink and something to eat at a bar we hadn't been to before in Ahuriri. The bar has a gorgeous setting, with an almost French provincial atmosphere ideal for long summer lunches and jazz on a Sunday afternoon. Wow, this is promising we thought - we'll add this to the list of spots we'll recommend to guests.

But to our amazement, when we enquired about their opening hours over the festive season we were told the bar would close on December 23 and not reopen till January 11.

"Why ever would you do that?" we asked. "We need a holiday too you know," was the curt reply. "How about taking it in June, when town is quiet?" we asked. "To be honest, it's too complicated trying to work out how to pay staff for the stat holidays," she replied.

Really? I resisted suggesting she might be in the wrong business.

Sadly, this wasn't a one-off. Time after time over Christmas/New Year we found too many of our favourite coffee haunts, eateries and restaurants shut. Making bookings for guests became an embarrassing affair, to the point we made up a cynical porky that our local hospitality industry was so incredibly successful that some operators could afford to take their holidays at the height of the visitor season.

Even now the frustration continues. A few weeks back a friend phoned a winery restaurant to make a lunch reservation for Easter Monday. Her daughter is visiting from Auckland. She was delighted to be told the restaurant would be open throughout the Easter weekend and her booking was confirmed.

However, this week she received a call to say the restaurant would be closing after all, because the winery decided not to open.

So despite taking her booking, the winery and its restaurant have apparently decided the trade from the last holiday weekend before winter isn't of sufficient value to them. Nor, it seems, is having a reputation for being reliably open for business.

Another friend tells me this past weekend she and a group popped in to a restaurant cafe in Havelock North at 2pm keen for lunch, only to be told that food service had finished.

This is a restaurant that's open into the evening, with chefs working right through the day. Weekends are all about spontaneity and relaxing the rules - except when it comes to eating out, it would seem.

The adage "make hay while the sun shines" shouldn't apply only to our pastoral industries. Tourism is now New Zealand's number one export earner. Surely Hawke's Bay wants its share?

But to earn the bucks, we need to be open for business. Yes, hospitality is a tough gig. Yes, the hours are long. But unless your doors are open, the customers will not come and the till will not ring.

The eating and dining experience that visitors to Hawke's Bay (and locals) enjoy should be the best in New Zealand. Delivering on that experience starts with being open for business when people want you to be.

To those venues who have worked tirelessly through summer, good on you and thanks!

- Liz Read runs her own consultancy called Reputation Matters, advising businesses on how to manage and grow their reputations. She and her partner also operate The Country Apartment tourist accommodation on their Eskdale lifestyle property.

- Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz