A $158 million boost for tourism spending over the next four years will not directly benefit Destination Queenstown and other regional tourism organisations (RTOs) at the industry's grass roots.
DQ chief executive Graham Budd was asked last week for his reaction to the Government's new investment, which Tourism New Zealand welcomed and came before trade expo Trenz last week.
''It will certainly benefit us in the big-picture sense of more international promotion of New Zealand as a destination, which obviously has a trickle-down effect on us, and so in that regard we're delighted the Government's investing in tourism funding, but none of it will make its way to RTO land, unfortunately.''
He said such funding usually went to national agencies and major events. There was an unconfirmed suggestion the Department of Conservation might get some, as might the recently undertaken China market review.
Asked if he thought the money was well placed when RTOs were working at the tourism front line, Mr Budd said DQ was helping to develop strategies on growing funding for RTOs.
''There's one fundamental thing that RTOs do that is not the mandate at the national level and that is to promote their destinations to domestic markets, so a great deal of our activity and many other RTOs focus more on domestic promotion than international promotion.''
DQ marketed domestically and internationally and it was up to the Wakatipu community and businesses to decide whether they wanted it to have more funding. DQ and Lake Wanaka Tourism were, uniquely, funded entirely from a targeted tourism levy under the Queenstown Lakes District Council. DQ's annual income was about $3.1 million. He said DQ ''could certainly use most constructively any increase in funding'' it could get, whether it be for domestic promotion, Australian promotion or long-haul market promotion.
''It would depend on what our membership wants us to invest in and where the best bang for buck is at the time.''
