No Increase in Base Funding for Visit Ruapehu in Favour of a New Economic And Business Development Fund

The amount and source of funding for Ruapehu’s Regional Tourism Organisation (RTO) Visit Ruapehu and economic development were hot topics at Council’s deliberations on its Long Term Plan (LTP) 2015/25.

Councillors have voted unanimously in favour of retaining Ruapehu’s Regional Tourism Organisation (RTO) Visit Ruapehu as part of their deliberations on the Long Term Plan (LTP) 2015/25 but were not willing to increase its base funding from $270,000 per year.

Visit Ruapehu had been asking for its budget to be increased to $443,000 in the coming financial year and rising to half a million by 2024/25 to align the Ruapehu Visitor Strategy with the National Tourism 2025 Strategy.

Council has agreed to instead create an economic and business development fund of between $100,000 - $200,000 drawn from existing budgets that can be applied against suitable projects as and when they are identified.

Ruapehu mayor, Don Cameron, said that whether Council was putting enough into economic development was one of the key questions of the LTP consultation and received the highest number of submissions.

“Currently on top of the $270,000 per year to fund Visit Ruapehu Council also puts $52,000 into economic development,” he said.

“Ruapehu tourism has had significant growth on the back of the cycle ways and other new tourism product offerings but Council recognises that it isn’t the only economic activity that has growth potential and they didn’t want to see all our limited resources going into one basket.”

“The new economic and business development fund will allow Council to actively support a number of growth opportunities across all economic sectors of which tourism could well be one.”

Mayor Cameron noted that with the results of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Ministry of Primary Industries regional growth study due out in early July Council wanted to have some flexibility to support whatever projects that may be identified in this.

“It is expected that tourism will form part of the growth opportunities that the regional study identifies.”

“Visit Ruapehu is likely to be part of the team that would promote tourism projects for consideration of support from the economic and business development fund.”
“Government is looking to collaborate with the region to implement the opportunities arising from the growth study but we will need to be in a position to contribute financially.”

“Aligning district and regional strategic plans with government growth strategies can have significant wins as highlighted by Council succeeding in having plans to drop the subsidy rate we receive for local roads turned around by demonstrating that it would negatively impact on the government’s Business Growth Agenda.”

Mayor Cameron added that Council was determined to ensure that Ruapehu was in a position to capitalise on the latent economic potential that the district has to offer.

“Without economic growth we will not achieve the increasing opportunities and improvements in standards of living benefiting all sectors of Ruapehu society that we all want to see,” he said.

“This will require some ratepayer investment.”

“Although the economic and business development fund will be drawn from existing budgets this does not mean that there is ‘fat’ in the system and ratepayers should note that this will inevitably impact of other planned activities of Council.”

“We believe that the approach we are taking provides the best balance between many worthwhile competing demands at this time.”

Caption: Council is eagerly awaiting the release of the findings of the Regional Growth Study in early July. Although the cycle ways and other new tourism products have contributed to a significant increase in visitor numbers Council recognises tourism is not the only source of district growth opportunities. A new Economic and Business Development Fund will help capitalise on the best opportunities as they arise in any sector.

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