Comment: Destination Management provides collaborative way forward for Northland's visitor industry

Northland is home to a wide range of visitor attractions like the Whangārei Falls. Photo / Sarah Orme

While it may seem that Northland has been an "island" in recent times, in terms of our visitor economy and destination management, there is no more appropriate saying than "no man is an island". Working together for the benefit of our visitor economy is more important now than it has ever been.

Last year my colleague, Tania Burt, wrote about the shift towards destination management and the partnerships that had been formed as part of the process. Now that Tai Tokerau has its very own Destination Management Plan (TNDMP), those partnerships have been strengthened further as we work towards the vision of enhanced visitor experiences for the benefit of our communities, businesses, the environment, and future generations. Destination management at its very core is the relationship between our communities, our environment, and our manuhiri/visitors.

The iconic Boatshed cafe in Rawene. Photo / Northland Inc

These partnerships are also what make Northland truly unique in our destination management journey. Rather than the Regional Tourism Organisation shouldering the full weight of destination management, our journey has been shared through our partnership structure in the creation of the TNDMP, the guidance of our leadership group, and the working group who are beginning the implementation of the actions within the plan.

Amy Simpkin, Northland Inc Destination Management Plan portfolio support. Photo / Northland Inc

Through the destination management process, we identified areas where there are gaps in the market and ways that we can address some of our key challenges, such as seasonality. One great example of this is the opportunity within the education market and Northland's strong proposition in this space given our place in the history of Aotearoa. Already we have partnerships forming between operators, which together can tell the stories of the arrival of Māori through to the arrival of the first Europeans, and the coming together of these two peoples to create our modern-day nation. Together these operators have also partnered with a tour operator who then has the expertise, connections, and market experience to package into a great product to take to New Zealand and the world.

A group weaves flax at Northland's iconic Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Photo / Northland Inc

While the above is an example of a commercial partnership, we also need to consider other ways of partnership. How can we as tourism operators partner with the community in more meaningful ways? How can partnerships between iwi and hapū be strengthened to enrich our visitor proposition? How can partnership work to create a positive impact on our environment?

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It will be due to partnerships where we will see the greatest successes because we won't be able to do this alone and it will take a village to raise our visitor industry once again, especially as we look forward to welcoming our international friends once again.