National aims to save every tourism job with more financial aid for businesses

Friday, 2 October 2020

New Zealand had about 20,000 tourism businesses pre-Covid and about 126 key ones received more than $270m in grants and loans to save them from possible closure.

National has set itself the ambitious goal of saving every tourism job through policies designed to offset the devastation caused by Covid-19.

The undertaking was given by National leader Judith Collins and Rotorua MP and tourism spokesman Todd McClay at a tourism policy announcement in Rotorua on Friday.

National will set up an “infrastructure bank” to help local councils build facilities needed to relieve pressure from tourism, and it will provide more financial assistance to cover the fixed costs of struggling tourism businesses.

The “bank” would source finance for projects in regional areas, and sit alongside an already announced $100m tourism accelerator fund to help businesses with new projects and innovation.

**READ MORE:

National leader Judith Collins and tourism spokesman Todd McClay have weighed in on criticism of the Government’s decision to offer AJ Hackett Bungy $10.2m in assistance to save 86 jobs.

* National promises $100m tourism 'accelerator' fund for businesses willing to grow out of Covid-19 recession

* The 2020 Budget is failing New Zealand's tourism industry

* Tourism says many jobs will go despite $400m Budget rescue package

National MP and tourism spokesman Todd McClay criticised Labour’s assistance for the industry as a “patchwork” response. “We have an aim of saving every single job and the difference between National's plan and Labour's plan is that the jobs will be saved here.”

A new tourism 2025 fund would use unallocated money from the current tourism infrastructure fund, the international visitor levy, and anything left over from Labour’s strategic assets protection programme (Stapp).

The process for distributing $270m in Stapp funding has been strongly criticised by the industry as unfair and lacking in transparency after 130 recipients were chosen from 308 applicants.

The decision to give AJ Hackett Bungy $10.2m in grants and loans was controversial and Collins described it as “unusual.”

“I don't think it was a great decision given that what I heard from tourism operators in Queenstown that the owners of that particular business are some of the wealthiest people around.

The cruise indistry has lobbied for “Kiwis only” cruises to popular New Zealand destinations such as Fiordland and the Bay of Islands and National says it will investigate that possibility.

“I'd like to be able to claw stuff back, it would be good to be able to but I don't think it's possible.'

McClay said National would seek advice from industry experts over allocation of funding, and described Labour’s efforts as “a patchwork response.”

'We want to make sure the criteria is open and transparent so every tourism-related business in New Zealand that thinks they have a need will have an opportunity to apply to that fund.

“We want every business in tourism to be a winner, not just the ones Kelvin Davis thinks are worth supporting.”

Tourism Export Council chief executive Lynda Keene gives National’s tourism policy a nine out of 10, with some reservations.

Davis has repeatedly said it was not possible to save every tourism job, but McClay said that was National’s aim.

'Every single tourism business in New Zealand was viable before Covid, over the next five years we want to get the visitor numbers back, so they remain viable and that those 400,000 people that relied on tourism to provide for their families still have a job and a future.”

Other policy initiatives included a 2021 New Zealand tourism festival to encourage domestic business, and the possibility of cruise ships operating running “Kiwis only” trips around New Zealand over the summer.

Collins said National would work collaboratively with local government, iwi, and the tourism sector to speed up decision-making, cut out bureaucracy and improve the collection of tourism data.

She accused Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis of being “invisible” during New Zealand’s worst economic crisis in living memory.

“Labour’s attitude to tourism over recent years has been marked by a lack of leadership, misunderstanding the sector, slow decision-making, and too much bureaucracy.

National’s Te Korowai Whakamaru/NZ Border Protection Agency would allow travel bubbles with neighbouring Covid-free countries when it was safe, and it would open the way for approved private commercial accommodation to provide managed isolation facilities, enabling the eventual return of international visitors.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts applauded National’s commitment to work with the industry to establish criteria that would be used to allocate Tourism 2025 Fund.

He said it was a good vehicle for helping the sector to recover, and the Accelerator Fund could also play a useful role.

Tourism Export Council chief executive Lynda Keen gave National’s tourism policy a score of nine out of 10 because it addressed many of the current and future needs of businesses impacted by Covid-19.

However, she said the accelerator fund could be a “real game changer” if National dropped the need for a contribution from businesses for the first year after the border reopened.

“For businesses needing to provide a minimum of 30 per cent investment that could be tricky if you have depleted cash reserves and no revenue for 9 months,” Keene said.

Davis described National’s target of saving every tourism job as “totally irresponsible” and said their policy did nothing to protect tourism workers or businesses.

“National have no vision, they aren’t doing their homework, and they’ve got no way to pay for their promises.

“All they’ve costed is the $100m over four years which was already announced, and landed with a dull thud months ago.”

Collins had criticised the dropping of the commercial accommodation monitor last year, but Davis pointed out it was replaced with a new accommodation data programme last month, a move the industry welcomed.