NZ Tourism funding body faces queries
A report in The Press today says that NZ Westland tour and accommodation providers will quiz the region’s main funding body tomorrow over concerns about its investment criteria.
The West Coast Development Trust is carrying out due diligence on a proposed investment in Scenic Circle’s Franz Josef hotel, to the anger of some local operators.
The trust was set up to promote local growth after native logging ended.
It has cited reports of tourists being forced to sleep in cars at Franz Josef because of lack of accommodation. It says growth forecasts are for an extra 300,000 to 400,000 bed nights a year within five years.
Tomorrow, Chairman Frank Dooley, Chief Executive Mike Trousselot, Westland Trustees and Scenic Circle Managing Director Brendan Taylor will meet an expected 100 people, mostly tour and accommodation providers from the glaciers.
An organiser, Marie Coburn, said some would attend from as far north as Greymouth.
She said people wanted the trust to clarify its investment criteria and the impact on local businesses if the Scenic Circle deal went ahead.
She also said that apart from during two peak-season weeks, no tourists were left without a bed. Demand this season was lower than previous years.
The growth of accommodation providers matched the growth of tourist numbers.
“There seems to be a lot of misinformation with the trust that people have been feeding to the media about bed numbers available down here.”
Any potential trust investment in Scenic Circle would not alleviate the glacier worker shortage, she said.
The trust had inexplicably declined funding for many small West Coast businesses. People did not understand why some loans were granted and not others.
She cited a Westland bushman who was made redundant when native forestry ended.
“He was made to understand like the rest of us that the trust was being set up to help create businesses and employment.”
The meeting was not about pointing the finger over the Scenic Circle proposal but better understanding the trust, Coburn said.
Trousselot did not accept concerns that people apparently failed to understand the trust’s investment criteria, as the criteria were freely available in many forms.
At the meeting, the trust would present the strategic background to Coast tourism, tourism projections, the Tourism West Coast strategy and identify gaps in the industry.
The meeting is at the Franz Josef Glacier Retreat at 7pm Tuesday.
Report by The Mole and The Press.
John Alwyn-Jones
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