Tourism Waitaki’s ‘‘Sweet Spot’’ marketing campaign has underlined the need for a review into the district’s tourism delivery, Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher says.
‘‘It’s around looking at what the opportunities are for economic development broadly, sitting in with community development and Tourism Waitaki’s role within that,’’ he said.
‘‘This is a good time to really look at what we’ve got overall and how do we actually deliver all of these things better.’’
There had been discussions over Tourism Waitaki’s financial issues before the Sweet Spot’s release in May, but the campaign, which had ‘‘put a lot of locals offside’’, underlined the need for a review, Mr Kircher said.
The series of promotional videos, dubbing the Waitaki district ‘‘The Sweet Spot of New Zealand’’, has been widely criticised online. There have been calls for the campaign to be pulled from public view and for Tourism Waitaki to work more collaboratively with tourism operators on future marketing.
On Thursday, Tourism Waitaki general manager Margaret Munro told the Otago Daily Times one more video — a ‘‘wrap-up video’’ — would be released to end phase one of the Sweet Spot campaign, but a release date was not confirmed. The focus of the campaign would then shift to ‘‘still images’’.
The Waitaki District Council is both a shareholder and a customer of Tourism Waitaki.
‘‘Wearing both of those hats, we’re not happy with how [the campaign has] gone,’’ Mr Kircher said.
The Tourism Waitaki board had been working hard in difficult circumstances, but the current model was ‘‘struggling to deliver’’, he said.
‘‘It’s not a lack of faith in the board — this is part of the bigger picture.
‘‘We need a model that’s sustainable, from a financial point of view.
‘‘At the end of the day, we want to make sure that if we’re doing it, we’re doing it effectively.’’
In 2019, Tourism Waitaki was warned by Mr Kircher it needed to build a ‘‘positive relationship’’ with the community after public outcry over its decision not to back Oamaru's Fire and Steam festival and the U-turn on the future of the Palmerston i-Site in announcing it would close just days after insisting no decision had been made on its future.
Before lockdown last year, Tourism Waitaki closed its visitor attraction Whitestone City, citing financial losses and the ongoing effect of Covid-19. It was later reopened by the Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust and recently welcomed its 15,000th visitor under the new model.
In May last year, Tourism Waitaki’s workforce was slashed by two-thirds, and the Oamaru i-Site and Omarama Information Centre were closed, as part of a major restructure. A new Oamaru visitor centre, jointly funded by Tourism Waitaki, the Waitaki District Council and the Waitaki Whitestone Geopark Trust, opened in October. At present, it is closed for winter.
The timeline for the economic development and tourism delivery review was not yet confirmed, Mr Kircher said. Council chief executive Alex Parmley had been asked to put together a proposal about how it would be carried out, and what the scope and the terms of reference would be.
Tourism Waitaki board chairman Mike McElhinney was approached for comment but did not respond by deadline.
