Steve Armitage: Hospitality New Zealand CEO on mayor Wayne Brown disestablishing Tātaki Auckland Unlimited

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown aims to disestablish the city's tourism and economic development agency.

The mayor is progressing plans to fold Tātaki Auckland Unlimited back into council control and reduce its functions.

He says the agency spent more than $700,000 on a campaign promoting Auckland to Aucklanders.

He says these things need to stop happening with ratepayer money.

Hospitality New Zealand CEO Steve Armitage Tātaki says is essential - and plays a pivotal role for the city's tourism.

"There are a lot of ancillary benefits, there are jobs created - particularly off the strength of Auckland's visitor economy in recent years."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're speaking of getting back to basics that government directive.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is pushing forward with his quest
to shut down Auckland's council controlled organization. So, according to
leak papers, he's progressing plans to disestablish the city's tourism
and economic development agency Tatuki Unlimited. Wayne Brown says, quote
major events, destination marketing and visitor attractions are not a

(00:22):
required activity for the council. But what impact would the
closure have? Hospitality in Z's CEO, Steve Armitage is with
the suce evening Calder.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Steve Calder Jack.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
So what does Auckland Unlimited actually do.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Well? In simple terms, an economic development agency promotes the
region that's as an attractive destination for businesses, investors and visitors,
but it also provides an important point for people who
live there. You know, we all want to live in
vibrant places. We all want to ensure that there's our
high quality content that we're engaged with on a day
to day basis. And as a result of that, there

(00:58):
are whole lot of ancillary benefits. There are jobs created,
particularly off the back of the strength of Auckland's visitor
economy in recent years, but also the work that they've
done around sectors like the screen sector for example, which
is you know, one of the key strengths and a
sector of competitive advantage for the city.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Is an organization like Tartaki Unlimited are nice to have.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
No, I'd consider it's being essential and I think if
you have to look across the ditch to see that
there are similar organizations that are playing a pivotal role
helping respective states in Australia get back on their feet. Yeah,
we routinely look at Melbourne and Sydney and talk about
how well they are performing. You know that doesn't happen

(01:42):
by accident. They have similar agencies that are well funded
and well supported and ultimately end up ensuring that they're
generating successful and generating and delivering successful events and driving
visitation which supports their local economies.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Is this the council's responsibility though? Why can't the privates
to pick this up?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
I think for a long period of time there has
been a desire and a willingness, even from within Tataki
Unlimited to look at alternative funding models, and to be
fair to them, they've done an incredible job. In recent times,
money has been hard to come by, but they've established
a fund with the private sector and they've been able
to generate around two million dollars of support to help

(02:23):
promote Auckland as a destination into Australia in particular. Now
I think seems a pretty clear signal that they're already
thinking about how they reduce the dependency on the ratepayer.
But I think central government also has a key role
to play. A lot of this results in increased GST take,
but at the moment, central government's not playing a pivotal
role in supporting how Auckland is performing as a sector.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Right, How could that change? What would you like to see?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
I think there's a conversation to be had around whether
there's alternative funding arrangements like an accommodation levy or a
bed text if you like, which we've seen and play
in other regions and other cities around the world. Most
key wes are pretty familiar with that type of approach
to things, and a proportion of that funding can obviously
be held at a central level to potentially support development

(03:11):
of visitor infrastructure at a national level, but it would
be great to see some of that funding being returned
to the region. That's generated in to help stimulate demand.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Hey, thanks for your tome, appreciate it. Steve that is
Steve Armitage, the CEO of Hospitality in New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
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