Open arm welcomes or too little too late - the reaction south of the Auckland border

Wednesday, 17 November 2021

Te Puia chief executive Tim Cossar said it was welcome news that Auckland visitors may be calling again but he warned hospitality and tourism still faced challenging times.

The prime minister’s announcement that Aucklanders will be able to leave the City of Sails from December 15 has received a mixed response in tourism meccas Rotorua and Taupō.

For Rotorua’s Secret Spot co-owner Keith Kolver, they will be waiting “with open arms”.

“As a tourism operation we have been patiently treading water while waiting for Auckland and Waikato to be released,” he said.

“We are holding out for Christmas and through January.”

Kolver said the hot tub business had kept afloat thanks to local support but acknowledged the impact of the missing Auckland market.

“It is easily 50-60 per cent of our business disappears overnight when you turn the Auckland tap off,” he said.

Rotorua’s Te Puia chief executive Tim Cossar also welcomed the news.

“We are excited by it. We have suffered like all tourism and hospitality businesses, compounded by the loss of international business. It has been a hell of a time.”

Secret Spot co-owner Keith Kolver said locals had kept their business afloat but they had taken a hefty hit from the closed Auckland market.

Cossar said the Auckland closure added an additional layer of complexity for operations such as his and that they were “looking forward to seeing those visitors again”.

He said it would prove a crucial period for many in the sector too.

“Most tourism businesses need a bloomin’ good summer, we need to fill our tin up.”

Cossar said that after Christmas he planned to open seven days a week, rather than the current five, but said a rough road remained with winter coming and no international guests until at least the later part of next year.

For Reg Hennessy, owner of Rotorua’s Hennessy’s Irish Bar and Hospitality New Zealand Rotorua branch president, it is too little too late.

”December 15 will in my opinion be too late to make any huge difference for Rotorua,” he said.

“I don’t think we will see a lot of people before January.”

Hospitality New Zealand Rotorua branch president Reg Hennessy said the December 15 opening of Auckland may be too little, too late for many struggling tourism and hospitality operations.

Hennessy said he believed the Coromandel would be the destination of choice for many leaving Auckland and that confidence needed to return for people to begin venturing out again.

He also said bills, GST payment requests and the like would start landing on doormats in the new year.

“A lot of owners are hanging on for a big Christmas sugar rush and if that doesn’t happen, who knows?”

For Destination Coromandel general manager Hadley Dryden, however, the timing could not be better.

He said it was “optimum time” for Auckland to reopen.

“For the tourism economy, Auckland is our biggest market. In terms of timing it is the period when tourism businesses make most of their money and it helps sustain them through the rest of the year.”

Replete Cafe and Store owner Chris Johnston is eagerly awaiting the return of Aucklanders. (File photo)

Taupō’s Replete Cafe and Store owners Chris and Kathy Johnston said they were desperate for Aucklanders to return.

“We need Auckland to survive, that is the long and short of it. The economy is going backwards without them,” Kathy Johnston said.

“We are down over 40 per cent. Obviously over this last week with the announcement of Covid being in Taupō it has been even more quiet, everyone is staying clear.”

Chris Johnston said the cafe would operate under the Government's traffic light system requiring vaccination certificates.

“By having the traffic light system, it certainly will make it easier to operate,” he said.

He said he was expecting large numbers of Aucklanders to return to the town.

“I look at what happened after the last lockdown, we were well over 30 per cent busier last winter than we would have been normally and that is without any international tourists,” he said.

“I think once Aucklanders can get out in a safe manner, Taupō will benefit. It is the ability for people to drive three hours south rather than hopping on a plane to Queenstown and potentially getting stuck.”

Taupō’s Sail Barbary skipper Peter Battell welcomed the news but expressed frustration at having to wait so long.

Wairakei Resort Taupō has received a flood of booking inquiries from Aucklanders.

“Let’s just say Jacinda Ardern should not be prime minister,” he said.

“All provincial towns rely on tourism and when you take out over a million of the population, the percentage of turnover in every business goes down.

“We are missing Aucklanders, the whole of New Zealand needs them.”

Battell encouraged Aucklanders not to be afraid and to make the trip as soon as they could.

“Wear your mask, wash your hands, and get on with life. Covid is going viral anyway,” he said.

Wairakei Resort Taupō hotel manager Atif Khan said he was delighted Aucklanders would soon be returning.

“It has been very obvious that Aucklanders are a big feeder to Taupō as a destination,” he said.

The resort had already been inundated with booking inquiries since Ardern’s announcement.

Suncourt Hotel and Conference Centre manager Chrissy Simmen said the return of Aucklanders could not happen soon enough.

“It has decimated our business up to now so we will be over the moon,” she said.

“We average a 75 per cent occupancy midweek and go to full occupancy in the weekends but at the moment we do a dance if we get over 10 per cent.”