Latest / Best of Business / Steve Armitage: Hospitality New Zealand CEO on mayor Wayne Brown disestablishing Tātaki Auckland Unlimited

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Steve Armitage: Hospitality New Zealand CEO on mayor Wayne Brown disestablishing Tātaki Auckland Unlimited · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: You're speaking of getting back to basics that government directive.
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  Speaker 2: Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is pushing forward with his quest
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  Speaker 2: to shut down Auckland's council controlled organization. So, according to
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  Speaker 2: leak papers, he's progressing plans to disestablish the city's tourism
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  Speaker 2: and Economic Development Agency Tatuki Unlimited. Wayne Brown says, quote
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  Speaker 2: major events, destination marketing and visitor attractions are not a
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  Speaker 2: required activity for the council. But what impact would the
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  Speaker 2: closure have Hospitality n Z CEO Steve Armitage is with
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  Speaker 2: this suce Evening Calder.
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  Speaker 3: Steve Jorda Jack.
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  Speaker 2: So what does Auckland Unlimited actually do.
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  Speaker 3: Well? In simple terms, an economic development agency promotes the
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  Speaker 3: region as an attractive destination for businesses, investors and visitors,
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  Speaker 3: but it also provides an important point for the people
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  Speaker 3: who live there. You know, we all want to live
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  Speaker 3: in vibrant places, want to ensure that there's our high
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  Speaker 3: quality content that we'll engaged with on a day to
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  Speaker 3: day basis, and as a result of that, there are
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  Speaker 3: who lot of ancillary benefits. There are jobs created, particularly
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  Speaker 3: off the back of the strength of Auckland's visitor economy
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  Speaker 3: in recent years, but also the work that they've done
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  Speaker 3: around sectors like the screen sector for example, which is
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  Speaker 3: you know, one of the key strengths and a sector
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  Speaker 3: of competitive advantage for the city.
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  Speaker 2: Is an organization like Tartaki Unlimited are nice to have.
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  Speaker 3: No, I'd consider it to being essential and I think
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  Speaker 3: if you don't have to look across the ditch to
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  Speaker 3: see that there are similar organizations that are playing a
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  Speaker 3: pivotal role helping respective states in Australia get back on
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  Speaker 3: their feet. Yeah, we routinely look at Melbourne and Sydney
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  Speaker 3: and talk about how well they are performing. You know,
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  Speaker 3: that doesn't happen by accident. They have similar agencies that
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  Speaker 3: are well funded and well supported and ultimately end up
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  Speaker 3: ensuring that they're generating successful generating and delivering successful events
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  Speaker 3: and driving visitation which supports the local economies.
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  Speaker 2: Is this the council's responsibility though? Why can't the private
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  Speaker 2: sector pick us up?
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  Speaker 3: I think for a long period of time there has
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  Speaker 3: been a desire and a willingness even from within Tataki
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  Speaker 3: Unlimited to look at alternative funding models, and to be
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  Speaker 3: fair to them, they've done an incredible job. In recent times.
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  Speaker 3: Money has been hard to come by, but they've established
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  Speaker 3: a fund with the private sector and they've been able
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  Speaker 3: to generate around two million dollars of support to help
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  Speaker 3: promote Auckland as a destination into Australia in particular. Now
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  Speaker 3: I think seems a pretty clear signal that they're already
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  Speaker 3: thinking about how they reduce the dependency on the rate payer.
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  Speaker 3: But I think central government also has a key role
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  Speaker 3: to play. A lot of this results in increased GST take,
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  Speaker 3: but at the moment, central government's not playing a pivotal
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  Speaker 3: role in supporting how Auckland is performing as a sector.
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  Speaker 2: Right, how could that change? What would you like to see?
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  Speaker 3: I think there's a conversation to be add around whether
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  Speaker 3: there's alternative funding arrangements like an accommodation levy or a
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  Speaker 3: bed text if you like, which we've seen and play
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  Speaker 3: in other regions and other cities around the world. Most
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  Speaker 3: key wes are pretty familiar with that type of approach
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  Speaker 3: to things, and a proportion of that funding can obviously
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  Speaker 3: be held at a central level to potentially support development
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  Speaker 3: of visitor infrastructure at a national level, but it would
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  Speaker 3: be great to see some of that funding being returned
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  Speaker 3: to the region that it's generated in to help stimulate demand.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for your tome. Appreciate it. Steve. There is
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  Speaker 2: Steve Armitage, the CEO of Hospitality in New Zealand.
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