'We are asking help to survive': Franz businesses unimpressed by minister's visit
Tuesday, 2 March 2021
The tourism minister’s visit to a struggling tourist town on the West Coast was a “waste of time”, some business owners say.
Stuart Nash met with business owners in Franz Josef Glacier on Tuesday.
He acknowledged they were doing it tough because of the Covid-19 pandemic and border closures, but said the Government could not save every struggling tourism business.
Motel manager and shuttle business owner Anne Tunnah said the meeting was “a complete waste of time”.
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“To spend money coming here to tell us nothing it’s ridiculous. We need help to keep our staff on and to be able to pay our rates and insurance,” she said.
Tunnah said the offer of $5000 worth of advice through the $10 million Regional Business Partners network would not help cover her overheads.
“We are asking help to survive,” she said.
Scenic Hotel Group director Lani Hagaman said the meeting was pointless. The group mothballed two of its hotels in Franz and Fox Glacier in 2020.
“I paid $6 million just in wages here in Franz and $1m in PAYE. Why wouldn’t they want to support us to get our doors open. They just don’t get it,” she said.
Development West Coast (DWC) had written to Nash to ask for $35m to support the region’s struggling businesses. It wanted $12m for further wage subsidies, $280,000 for economic crisis and mental health support, and $20m for infrastructure projects such as a walkway and cycleway linking Ōkārito and Fox Glacier.
A DWC report released last week forecast the region’s income would tumble 80 per cent this year, while 860 out of 1028 jobs and 117 of its 174 businesses would be lost.
Fox Glacier Top 10 Holiday Park owner Steve Edwards said the region had been doing it tough for five years, but he believed the Government was doing the best it could in these unprecedented times.
The glacier road had been damaged three times in the last five years, the main state highway had closed multiple times, and ex-Cyclone Gita caused havoc in 2018.
“We’ve battled the elements for five years so none of us have had the chance to really put the rainy day money away … the reserves have run out,” Edwards said.
Nash said he went to the West Coast on Tuesday to listen.
“We can’t save every business … [but] it is sobering when you come to a region like this, and it’s normally a bustling town full of international tourists … It’s not that at the moment.
“When we talk about the team of 5 million, communities like Fox and Franz have done it very very hard, and we need to acknowledge that” he said.
He told the group the Government was working on a support package for businesses to help them until the borders reopened, but could not give details until it had been approved by Cabinet and the minister of finance. The Government was also working on “reimagining tourism in a post-Covid world”.
Nash and West Coast Labour MP Damien O’Connor also met with the region’s mayors and the trustees of DWC, which administers a $128m fund created to offset the economic impact of the end of the native logging industry in 2001.
Nash said he had hoped the trust could release 10 per cent of its fund to help businesses get through the pandemic, but the trustees agreed to release only $5m.
Nash said a $24m grant for a stopbank on the flood-prone Waiho River, which runs through Franz Josef, had been put on hold to make sure it was part of a long-term solution for the hazards facing the town.
The proposal was currently before a panel of ministers, and an announcement would be made before the end of March, he said.
DWC chief executive Heath Milne said it was disappointing the minister did not announce a “decent support package” while he was on the West Coast.