Latest / The SME Stream / 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 · The SME Stream

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You're speaking of getting back to basics that government directive.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is pushing forward with his quest
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to shut down Auckland's council controlled organization. So, according to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: leak papers, he's progressing plans to disestablish the city's tourism
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and economic development agency Tartuki Unlimited. Wayne Brown says, quote
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: major events, destination marketing and visitor attractions are not a
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: required activity for the council. But what impact would the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: closure have? Hospitality in Z's CEO, Steve armitages with the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: suce Evening Calder.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Steve Jorda Jack.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: So what does Auckland Unlimited actually do.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Well? In simple terms, an economic development agency promotes the
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: region that's as an attractive destination for businesses, investors and visitors,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: but it also provides an important point for the people
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: who live there. You know, we all want to live
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: in vibrant places. We all want to ensure that there's
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: our high quality content that we're engaged with on a
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: day to day basis. And as a result of that,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: there are a whole lot of ancillary benefits. There are
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: jobs created, particularly off the back of the strength of
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Auckland's visitor economy in recent years, but also the work
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: that they've done around sectors like the screen sector for example,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: which is you know, one of the key strengths and
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: a sector of competitive advantage for the city.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Is an organization like Tartaki Unlimited are nice to have, No.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: I'd consider it to being essential and I think if
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: you have to look across the ditch to see that
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: there are similar organizations that are playing a pivotal role
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: helping respective states in Australia get back on their feet. Yeah,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: we routinely look at Melbourne and Sydney and talk about
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: how well they are performing. You know that doesn't happen
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: by accident. They have similar agencies that are well funded
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: and well supported and ultimately end up ensuring that they're
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: generating successful in generating and delivering successful events and driving
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: visitation which supports their local economies.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Is this the council's responsibility though? Why can't the privates
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: to pick this up?
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I think for a long period of time there has
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: been a desire and a willingness, even from within Tataki
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Unlimited to look at alternative funding models, and to be
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: fair to them, they've done an incredible job in recent
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: times money has been hard to come by, but they've
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: established a fund with the private sector and they've been
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: able to generate around two million dollars of support to
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: help promote Auckland as a destination into Australia in particular. Now,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: I think seems a pretty clear signal that they're already
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: thinking about how they reduce the dependency on the rate payer.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: But I think central government also has a key role
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: to play. A lot of this results and increased GST take,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: But at the moment, central government's not playing a pivotal
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: role in supporting how Auckland is performing as a sector.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Right How could that change? What would you like to see?
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I think there's a conversation to be had around whether
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: there's alternative funding arrangements like an accommodation levy or a
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: bed tax if you like, which we've seen and play
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: in other regions and other cities around the world. Most
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: key wes are pretty familiar with that type of approach
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: to things, and a proportion of that funding can obviously
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: be held at a central level to potentially support development
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: of visitor infrastructure at a national level, but it would
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: be great to see some of that funding being returned
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: to the region that it's generated in to help stimulate demand.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for your tome. Appreciate it. Steve there is
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Steve Armitage, the CEO of Hospitality in New Zealand.