Whakatāne District Council has become an associate member of Regional Tourism New Zealand in a move to help promote tourism in the district.

The membership comes four months after a group of local tourist operators announced a boycott on council-led tourism initiatives and advertising in protest of the council withdrawing its membership of Tourism Bay of Plenty.

Tourism and economic development manager Nicola Burgess said, as a district tourism association, membership of Regional Tourism New Zealand would provide the Whakatāne district with several valuable benefits.

“It enables the council to support local tourism operators to attend key tourism trade events such as TRENZ, where they promote their experiences directly to inbound travel agents who connect with international visitors.

“The membership also provides direct access to Regional Tourism NZ for industry resources, expert advice, and collaboration opportunities with other regional tourism organisations to attract international visitors.

“Additionally, it strengthens the council’s relationship with Tourism New Zealand, allowing alignment with their initiatives specifically designed to attract international visitors to smaller regions like Whakatāne.”

A collective of Eastern Bay tourism operators had previously expressed their concerns about the council’s withdrawal from Tourism Bay of Plenty, a decision made in a public-excluded meeting due to commercial sensitivity.

Whakatāne Tourism Collective, represented by Tio Ōhiwa Tours operator Wini Geddes and Kohutapu Lodge and Tribal Tours director Nadine Toe Toe, made a deputation to the council at a meeting on June 26.

Their concerns included the lack of consultation, communication and transparency of the council over the decision to withdraw $89,115 of funding to be part of the regional tourism operator and bring the council’s tourism promotion of the district in-house.

They said operators within the collective would be removing their advertising from the Whakatāne I-site and would no longer participate in council-led tourism initiatives.

They told Local Democracy Reporting the contribution to Tourism Bay of Plenty linked them to domestic and international tourists through Tourism New Zealand and New Zealand Māori Tourism and represented just 2.8% of the council’s annual $3 million tourism budget.

Quoting Stats NZ, they said the region received $166 million in visitor spend annually, with approximately $20m of that from international visitors. More than 10% of the workforce in Eastern Bay was employed in tourism.

Burgess said the membership with Regional Tourism NZ was costing the council $3750 a year.

“This represents a significant saving compared to the previous annual grant to Tourism Bay of Plenty.

“This approach allows the council to maintain valuable tourism industry connections and support while achieving significant cost savings for ratepayers.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.