Developments such as the proposed Pak'n Save and Mitre 10 Mega should be supported to make Queenstown Lakes attractive "not only from a scenic perspective", says a senior local businessman.
Chamber of Commerce president and steering committee member of local initiative Shaping our Future, Alastair Porter said the Queenstown Lakes District Council had "to be helping, not hindering development".
`There's no point in council and Lakes Environmental opposing developments that are going to bring affordable groceries to the district."
He commended the recent economic survey from Business Economic Research Ltd (Berl) which ranked Queenstown second out of 66 regions but said sustainable development had to be pursued to increase the GDP and employment ranking.
"If we look at how we can operate in the future, the interesting points that Berl makes about us is not that we are high ranking, it's that we rank 56 for GDP and 31 for employment growth."
As well as supporting such developments Queenstown had to invest in more tourism infrastructure and promote industries related to tourism, such as film, the arts, environmental awareness and culture, Mr Porter said.
"Because tourism is New Zealand's number one employer and a major driver of GDP."
It's important the district pursue sustainable development and that we don't try to be all things to all people, and we don't encourage labour-intensive work."
Although Mr Porter said the survey gave an indication of trends and was "not a substitute for more direct research", he praised the annual report as being "extremely useful" in showing why regions and local authorities mattered.
"How Queenstown grows is important not only to the locals but to the region and nationally", because of its high promotion of tourism.
Mr Porter is involved in Shaping our Future - which was aimed to give residents and ratepayers a voice in decision-making - and said the district had to be looking at this as an alternative to council-dominated decisions.
He summarised the initiative as enabling the community to come together to say what it wanted to, , rather than the council telling people what it wanted to do, "then the community spending a lot of time and money trying to convince the council otherwise".
Mr Porter said the initiative would be releasing a "user-friendly" macro-economic model in the coming weeks to promote targeted economic development.
