Kerre Woodham: Southern hospitality is lacking

So Andrew Mehrtens is to be the cheeky face of a new campaign designed to attract more tourists to Christchurch. Good choice. He's smart, likeable, loquacious and instantly recognisable. Christchurch and Canterbury Marketing are behind the push to get a more sizeable chunk of the lucrative domestic tourism market.

Apparently, market research found that North Islanders thought of the Garden City as conservative and stuffy and CCM have hired Mehrts - for six months at an undisclosed sum - to be an ambassador for his hometown and an advertisement for the charms Canterbury has to offer.

I like Christchurch. I've always had fun visiting there and the people have been very welcoming. Once they find out my dad was from Canterbury and my relatives still live there. And once I've disowned Auckland.

If CCM want to attract more domestic tourism - and I assume that's a euphemism for Aucklanders given the population and the discretionary income - they'd be better off embarking on a campaign to re-educate Cantabrians. No one wants to visit a place where they're bagged constantly for living in Auckland.

Even Mehrts got in on the act. "I always get into arguments with the boys from up north. It is not very difficult to bag their city and they don't really have a lot of comeback most of the time," he said.

Good one! Why visit a place where you're not welcome? Or where you have to justify why you choose to live where you do? Lose the chips off those shapely Canterbury shoulders and you'll see more visitors. To borrow from Benjamin Franklin, a spoonful of honey will attract more Aucklanders than a gallon of vinegary, Jafa-bashing vitriol.