News release
24 October 2013
New funding gives significant boost to tourism recovery

Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism has welcomed today’s announcement of a funding package to support the ongoing recovery of the tourism sector in Christchurch and the wider Canterbury region.

Associate Tourism Minister Chris Tremain today announced that $764,000 will be provided to the Canterbury Tourism Partnership by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). The Christchurch City Council and Christchurch Airport will also be contributing $500,000 each to the Partnership.

Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism chief executive Tim Hunter says the funding is enormously important and will provide a significant boost to new marketing programmes to bring visitors back to Christchurch.

“We acknowledge the huge benefits for the industry from the support of all three partners. This further funding enables us to maintain momentum with a number of very important recovery initiatives,” he says.

“Since the 2011 earthquake holiday arrivals from our largest market Australia have fallen by as much as 40%,” Mr Hunter says.

“The Canterbury Tourism Partnership funding has allowed us to address this decline in visitor numbers in a range of marketing communication projects partnering with Tourism New Zealand, airlines and other South Island regions.”

Mr Hunter says this year’s funding will be used to initiate new promotions that coincide with the commencement of direct flights from Perth to Christchurch in December. In addition it will deliver a major Canterbury-focused campaign in Victoria and New South Wales in early 2014 and a range of PR and online elements aimed to boost visitor interest.

An additional $202,000 over two years will also be provided by MBIE to Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism to co-fund a new Visitor Sector Recovery position. The position will be focused on the immediate implementation of projects in the Visitor Sector Recovery Plan, which lays out the tourism sector’s priorities in the city’s rebuild.

This is the third year that MBIE has contributed to this funding partnership ($625,000 in 2011/12 and $500,000 in 2012/13).

- ends -

© Scoop Media