We have a sports park that attracts international events and a strong cultural identity. This year's Hawkes Bay marathon attracted 15,000 runners and support crew and 80% of those came from out of town.
The cycleways are amongst the best in the country, and wineries, cellar doors, cafes and restaurants, specialty destinations like the chocolate factory all deliver the best hospitality in the province.
What Hastings hasn't done well for many years is to blow our own trumpet loudly enough. We have the support of Hawkes Bay tourism but we need to work alongside them to make sure we get a bigger slice of the cake!
So why the big thing about the visitor industry? Most will think that it is only the traditional 'tourism businesses' that benefit, the motels, hotels and eateries. The truth is that the visitor dollar has an acknowledged multiplier of 7.
In other words, the tourist dollar keeps on rolling right around the community. While tourists spend on visitor services, they don't stop needing everyday items, they don't stop needing clothing, pharmaceuticals, food, petrol etc. Their dollar has a direct impact right across our commercial sector.
But it goes further. The motelier buys paint for redecorating, the restaurant buys meat to feed the diners, the waitress buys petrol to get to work, the vintner gets the printer to run off the labels, they all use accountants, plumbers, sparkies et al. You get the picture.
The visitor dollar brought into the region has an impact right through our local economy.
And I use the term visitor dollar for a reason. It is easy to identify the traditional perception of the 'tourist'. The accent, the visible ethnicity, the rental campervan all identifying international visitors.
The less visible but more valuable domestic visitor market includes families visiting the bay for their stunning summer holidays, coming to see Aunty Dolly for her 80th, the visiting sports teams trying to beat the mighty Bay, conventions and conferences and business visitors.
So that's the market and considering the international visitors alone spent $14.5 billion in NZ last year, it's easy to see how it can have such a positive impact on the economy. Currently one in every 10 jobs in Hawkes Bay is supported by tourism and visitors spend more than $604m a year in our region and 75% of that is from Kiwis visiting our region.
I agree that airport growth is important as a key gateway into the province but our arterial routes are just as important. The vast majority of visitors are self-drive from another visitor destination.
Years of talk about an international airport is a nice warm 'fuzzy', but New Zealand already has five active international airports and four others equipped to accept international flights.
In comparison, greater Sydney has one international airport for the same population. The real key to our success is to make sure the visitor experience at our gateway and at the attractions is amongst the best in the country to ensure that visitor numbers to Hastings continue to grow providing a great platform for business, jobs and the well-being of a financially strong community.
While tourism is only one opportunity for growth (and there are many) it is one we cannot afford to ignore any longer.
Our challenge is to work with our regional tourism organisation to get a bigger share for Hastings. We need to put the effort into enhancing our existing attractions and growing the potential opportunities to get the business flowing. I have said before that Hastings is the capital of Hawkes Bay, we just need to 'capitalise' on that.
Stuart Perry is standing as a candidate in the Hastings mayoralty byelection and has 20 years' experience in the tourism industry. All opinions are the writer's and not those of Hawke's Bay Today.
