$500,000 for Rainbow's End from Govt fund to save tourism businesses

Monday, 21 September 2020

Rainbows End chief executive Karen Crabb says maintenance on rides was top priority, and a $500,000 Government grant will help keep the park grounds looking spick and span.

Auckland’s Rainbows End theme park and a Central Otago curling rink are among recipients of Government funds to save key tourism businesses.

All up 130 businesses will benefit from the strategic assets protection programme (Stapp) and the identities of those chosen are being revealed progressively as they sign funding agreements with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

Rainbows End chief executive Karen Crabb said their $500,000 grant will help to keep the park, which pre-Covid drew 400,000 visitors a year, looking good.

“All maintenance of rides continued, we prioritised that, but this means we can maintain the wider park grounds and keep everything painted.”

Maniototo International Curling Rink in Naseby gets $199,766 as a strategic tourism asset. The rink, the only indoor one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, operates year round and has hosted international tournaments, as well as giving overseas and local visitors a taste of the sport. (File photo).

New Zealand had about 20,000 tourism businesses pre-Covid and about 126 key ones received more than $270m in grants and loans to save them from possible closure.

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Rainbows End was open at levels 2 and 2.5, but numbers were capped to maintain social distancing and last weekend, Crabb said they had to turn people away.

Auckland Zoo has opened a new enclosure that will house its simians and orangutans. The zoo got $500,000 from the Stapp fund.

The park was only opening three days a week, but would return to operating seven days a week from Friday, and it was also recruiting more staff with numbers expected to rise from about 220 to 270.

Other Auckland attractions to receive $500,000 grants included Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland Zoo Te Whare Kararehe o Tamaki Makaurau, The New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui A Tangaroa, and Sea Life Kelly Tarlton’s aquarium.

In the South Island Maniatoto Curling International, which runs a curling rink in Naseby received just under $200,000.

Invercargill’s Transport World, Wanaka’s Puzzling World, and Christchurch’s trams and punting on the Avon got the maximum grant of $500,000.

More Rotorua businesses have joined the list of those chosen including Rotorua Canopy Tours, Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland, and Te Puia.

The Stapp scheme has been criticised by tourism operators who did not think they met the criteria that defined strategic assets, and they were surprised when competitors applied successfully.

Documents released by MBIE also show officials had such grave reservations about the scheme, they at one stage recommended the Tourism Ministers Recovery Group making the decisions should abandon the whole thing, and consider alternative forms of support.

A group of largely South Island businesses has engaged lawyer Andy Glenie to consider options, such as seeking a judicial review of the process for distributing $67m in grants and almost $203m in loans.

Some successful applicants have also privately expressed concerns about aspects of the Stapp, but are reluctant to speak out publicly because of a clause in their funding contracts.

It said recipients “must obtain prior written agreement from MBIE over the form and content of any public statement made by the recipient about the agreement, the funding or the tourism asset.'

An MBIE spokesperson said the clause was standard in agency funding agreements, and did not set out to silence critics.

“It is not intended to prevent comment, but rather to be certain that any comment that is made is factual, and so there are no surprises for the government.”