David Perks: Regional Tourism New Zealand Chair on the funding boost for regional events

It's hoped Government funding for 132 regional events will aid tourism outside our main cities. 

The cash is going towards things like Central Otago's Goldrush Multisport Event, Taupo's Classic Disc Golf Tournament, and the New Zealand Cider Festival in Nelson. 

Applicants were selected on their ability to encourage domestic visitors to explore beyond the main centres. 

Regional Tourism New Zealand Chair David Perks told Mike Hosking it's about getting Kiwis out and about. 

He says it's aimed to support the regions which normally miss out on the tourism limelight. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A little bit of government helped too, A little bit

(00:01):
of government hift behind our tourism story that has failed
to fire properly post COVID, and I've told you about
this about a million times. We have five million dollars
heading in the direction of regional tourism operators. We had
one hundred and thirty two events nationwide. We'll get a
boost regional tourism New Zealand. Sare David Perks is with
us on this. David, a very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
I've been concerned for a long time about how lack
of bounce back are you.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, for sure, we were going real strong and it's
plateaued at best. Why I think the domestic tourism economy
is slow as we're in the middle of winter, and
there's concern about the economy of course, as people have
got less money in their pockets. But also I think
there's concern is about long haul travel in the future

(00:45):
as well, and with a global slow down of economy,
concerns about climate and people looking at other places.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, exactly, and that's part of the problem because you
look at Europe right here, right now, the place is
overflowing with tourists, people will spend money that will fly.
Do we have a major problem in marketing, branding, storytelling,
whatever it may be.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
I don't think we have a major problem in that
international market, but we do need to get back on
top of that planet. New Zealand's a very long way
to come to and it's really important for our tourism
businesses across every community in New Zealand that we're playing
at the top of our game, because we've got a
hard game to play.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
So what you're suggesting, what are you going to do
with this money? So you land in Auckland from America,
you may not know about Kerrie Care or Timuru. Is
that what this buys or not?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
No, not at all. This is all about getting New
Zealanders out and about right across the country to different places.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
So this is domestic.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
So this is domestic tourism, and this is about supporting
small events and regions that probably don't normally get the
tourism limelight and giving them some support to get people
traveling to their regions. Whether that's the Maneuver two Southland, Tairafati,
the Far North, getting behind events in those places to

(02:02):
get people to travel to different places at times of
year they perhaps want other wist travel.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
So it is event based and do you know for
sure that event drives tourism as opposed to I'm going
to Tai rapidly for the beach in summer because it's
a cool place to be.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yes, certainly you did. Right in the middle of summer,
we all go to the beach, But at other times
it's a year when we travel. As New Zealanders, we
tend to travel for specific reasons and events are very
specific reasons. And when you look at the type of
events that are being supported, there's lots of participation events.
So if more people know about these events, more people
will participate and therefore they will have a bigger impact

(02:37):
on the tourism businesses.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
You have KPIs on this by spending five million dollars,
you can come back on the program in a year's
time and say, because we spent that, we got this.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah. Everybody, every event is being asked to record the
difference that has made to them and it will be
really both interesting and I hope exciting to see what
difference that's made for places right across the country.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Fantastic, Go well with the diver David Perkson, have a
good week in Regional Tourism New Zealand chair. For more
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