Xrace took place on Saturday on Napier's Marine Parade, after being postponed because of the cyclone. The region is back, out and about, and having fun. Photo / Ian Cooper
Xrace took place on Saturday on Napier's Marine Parade, after being postponed because of the cyclone. The region is back, out and about, and having fun. Photo / Ian Cooper
Opinion
OPINION:
Hawke’s Bay’s visitor economy knows ‘rebuilding’ all too well. Over the past three years, our industry has had more experience with it than we’d care to remember.
Similar to Covid-19, this rebuild comes with many challenges. But this time it will also be a rebuild of homes, communities and infrastructure; of businesses, orchards, vineyards and property.
Cruelly similar to the situation after Covid-19, our visitor economy is missing visitors. However, this time, it is problem with perception more than anything else.
When Cyclone Gabrielle cut a swathe across the region to ruin the first full summer season for our industry since 2018-2019, it brought with it a series of devasting blows to Hawke’s Bay communities.
The images of this were shocking and quickly spread far and wide. There is no denying that Cyclone Gabrielle has had a significant impact on our region during a time when we should have been celebrating with events, harvests and vintage fun.
And yet, with 85 per cent of our region’s tourism businesses operating as usual and the visitor experience largely untouched, Hawke’s Bay is ready to welcome tourists once more.
Media coverage of the cyclone has been extensive and hard to miss - and rightly, centred around those hardest-hit communities.
Media coverage has been centred around hard-hit areas like Pākōwhai, where water reached the tops of roofs. Photo / Paul Taylor
However, this means there has been very little coverage of the fact our main centres and key visitor destinations have emerged relatively unscathed.
The result is a skewed national perception of what it is like in Hawke’s Bay right now.
As the third-largest industry contributor to regional GDP (after processing/manufacturing and agriculture) and estimated to represent 9-10 per cent of the total employment in the region, Hawke’s Bay’s visitor economy will play an important role in the recovery.
Tourism recovery can occur relatively swiftly with the likes of events, holiday weekends and business events, such as conferences. The first real reflection of this will be over Easter, when Sir Rod Stewart will play to an enthusiastic crowd.
This economic injection that tourism can bring will be valuable as our agriculture, horticulture and viticulture sectors recover from the damage wrought by Gabrielle. In fact, we’ve already seen this in action with the return of cruise ships, supplying Napier CBD businesses with an immediate influx of people and spending.
Visitors bring money into our economy, supporting jobs, businesses and vibrancy. Our regional population is not enough on its own to support the events, restaurants, experiences and infrastructure that we as residents are so proud of.
And so today, Hawke’s Bay Tourism has launched a restart campaign called ‘Live from Hawke’s Bay’, where we will share people and places operating right now within our visitor economy.
Our aim is to shift the perception of Hawke’s Bay as a destination to avoid and ensure that, before long, visitors will be once again staying in our hotels, eating at our restaurants, admiring our Art Deco architecture and drinking our wine, before going home to their friends and shouting from the rooftops about our incredible, resilient region.
Hamish Saxton is the chief executive of Hawke’s Bay Tourism.
