Tourism Bay of Plenty is seeking an extra $600,000 from the Tauranga City Council to fend off the damage done to its branding campaign by the wreck of the Rena.
In a letter to the council, Tourism BOP chairman Paul Bowker says the Bay of Plenty's $450 million tourism industry has suffered continual damage to its brand and reputation, which has already, and will continue to affect business in the community.
The Rena's stern slip down the Astrolabe Reef is sinking Tourism Bay of Plenty's rebranding efforts. Photo: Maritime New Zealand.
'Every time a Rena update is wired around the globe, the negative images pinpointing Tauranga continue to provide constant reminders of why the Bay of Plenty is on the world map for the wrong reasons,” says Paul.
As long as the ship remains on the Astrolabe Reef the Bay of Plenty risks further damage to its brand and reputation, says Paul.
The breaking up of the ship and sinking of the stern has since exacerbated the issue, says Paul.
Tourism Bay of Plenty worked around the clock to respond to the crisis and meet stakeholder needs.
It stripped its current budget to pay for the response to the crisis so far, but it cannot pay for the next stages of the recovery campaign.
It spent so much on Rena that it cannot reinstate the activities that were given up to fund the immediate response.
One option for the short-term short-fall is for the council to provide a short-term loan until the additional grant funding is provided in July 2012.
Tourism BOP is funded through the economic development targeted rate.
The total economic development targeted rate in 2011/12 was $1.87 million.
The targeted rate is shared out to Tourism Bay of Plenty $1,054,000, Priority One $638,000, Chamber of Commerce $54,000, Export Bay of Plenty $48,000, and overheads $76,000.
Tourism BOP is not expecting central government funding will be available for the Rena.
Immediately after the Rena's grounding in October, Tourism Bay of Plenty, encouraged and supported by the council and tourism operators, took leadership in the area of reputational management by:
- Establishing and funding a crisis management team to liaise with media and hold public meetings to gauge the state of the situation and keep the tourism industry informed.
- Surveying tourism operators to measure the effect of the disaster on the industry.
- Developing a ‘retention' tool kit for operators to help stem cancellations, and running a Bay of Plenty themed promotion with Grab One.
In mid-December Tourism BOP also launched the Rena recovery campaign and its new tagline:
'It's not called the Bay of Plenty for nothing”.
The domestic and international destination campaign aims to reposition Bay of
Plenty as a visitor destination and foster visitor numbers by leveraging the fact that there is more to the Bay of Plenty than the beach.
The campaign is expected to run for 3-4 years.
Tourism Bay of Plenty says the total campaign, including the international aspect scheduled to start in the second half of 2012, warrants a $1 million investment.
Tourism BOP's request will be discussed at Tuesday's Ten Year Plan meeting.
20 comments
Tourism funding
Posted on 23-01-2012 17:25 | By The author of this comment has been removed.
Perhaps the Ratepayers should be invited to accept this proposition or not. In any case the money should ideally come from the owners of the vessel, in my opinion.
SHEER UNADULTERATED GARBAGE
Posted on 23-01-2012 17:52 | By RORTSCAM
This is Tourism BOP trying to trough out and dine on Tauranga City Council Ratepayers. Tomorrow Tuesday 24Jan they are sucking up to TCC COUNCILLORS trying to get the $500000 and they should be sent packing.The RENA is not affecting tourists and the waters are today pristine the clearest I have ever seen them so where is the issue. This sort of bull**** should be stomped on. WOFTAM.
Beach Busy
Posted on 23-01-2012 18:02 | By tabatha
This afternoon there were a lot of people along the beach from Papamoa back to the Mount, I have seen it busier. I suspect the visitors are light by the look of Vacancy signs and camping grounds. People who run businesses in the Bay need support over this time and some form of encouragement and photos to get people here would not go astray. That is on to the big medium, TV for instant impact here and overseas. People living here need to tell friends the Bay is open to business do not stay away.
Posted on 23-01-2012 18:40 | By charob
tourism get over it..................
Well what do you know
Posted on 23-01-2012 19:39 | By Jack the Lad
The Rena is not going away anytime soon, and P.S.A is doing more damage to the economy in the Bay, so what to do????, we pay (rate payers) your stipends to try and come up with reasonable solutions, please do not be like the T.C.C and other of their ilk, and cry out for more money, the trough is empty. I cannot hold out my hand, when my years of toil are suffering from the ineptitude of others,and un natural events, it is about time people in charge of the purse strings started to realise that money does not grow on trees, and start pruning staff and cutting costs to save a little, most of the rest of us are having to, and here was me thinking we have employed a city manager on mega dollars to solve these issues, have we seen any returns yet??, nope things are still the same.
600 k....
Posted on 23-01-2012 19:40 | By Tony
And the best you come up with is Grab one.....This is a pi*s take surely?
dave wilson
Posted on 23-01-2012 19:45 | By Dave Wilson
Plenty of oil. Plenty of dried milk powder. Plenty of dead penguins. Plenty of containers. Plenty of lamb roasts. Plenty of disruption. Curious campaign.
Reality
Posted on 23-01-2012 20:20 | By wilma
All this "brand" talk amuses me (in a bad way), since it seems to suggest that the Rena spill, the oil, the crap on the beaches is somehow of not real, is the result of spin or unfair publicity, is somehow not actually there. The "brand" is damaged because REAL DAMAGE WAS DONE TO THE BOP.
World interest diverted by Italian shipwreck
Posted on 23-01-2012 20:26 | By Gee Really
But that aside, go and ask the ship's owners or insurers fro the money, not the mug ratepayer. Question? If tourism is really worth $450 million, why the reluctance of the frontline tourism businesses to pay for promotion costs? Why the constant quest for subsidies?
Rubbish!
Posted on 23-01-2012 20:41 | By theschizzle
A couple of free online surveys don't count when you don't pay any attention to them. Meetings mean nothing when you don't listen to what people want, and end up with LOVEBOP campaigns that don't work. And getting operators to give their products away at half price when they need their dollars more than ever is just irresponsible! Give it up. You don't deserve to get a penny of the ratepayers money. You've earned unemployment, not pay rises.
PROMOTION OF THE BAY
Posted on 23-01-2012 21:48 | By SCARLET PIMPINEL
I would say that the best run of publicity the Bay has ever had, on TV around the world, all over the net for months. That is publicity that Tourisum BOP could never have mustered in their wildest dreams! Rather than trying to push the wave back perhaps try going for it, jump on the wave. All you have to do is look at the number of people standing on the beach looking out at the Rena site. Why don't the boat operators offer rides out to look at it, sounds like easy money tourist $$$ to me and good for all. Just need a wee help from the habour master to get close enough and all done. The Bay has the venue, the Rena so make something of it while it is there, catch a skippy while you are there.
Tell
Posted on 23-01-2012 22:43 | By Capt_Kaveman
Paul Bowker to take a jump any of this $ hes asking will not help the area's cause, if $ are to come from somewhere it should be from the port of Tga
Kidding me
Posted on 23-01-2012 23:12 | By The Vale
What a joke, this is Tourism BOP screwing up the brand. Not with my money buddy.
I've got a better idea!
Posted on 24-01-2012 09:07 | By nerak
If Paul Bowker wants to "fend off the damage", why doesn't he kick start the fund with $600k himself? This man owns Devonport Towers, plus several other sizeable chunks of real estate around Tauranga? Maybe he could sell something? And @ Tony, yep, one BIG pi*s take, by both TBOP and TCC. Come on Tauranga, kick your council OUT.
@ Capt_Kaveman
Posted on 24-01-2012 09:17 | By nerak
How the hell do you figure POT is responsible for the RENA grounding? My understanding is the grounding had everything to do with those on board at the time, and nothing to do with a single member of the staff of POT. POT is the best run port in NZ, and an excellently run business, and the only thing you can do is run it down? What is your real problem with POT?
Really???
Posted on 24-01-2012 09:44 | By Donnaw
We have been down the mount numerous time this summer and still....just like evry other year cant find a bloody park anywhere because its so busy, i dont think it has affected tourism at all, i think they are taking the piss actually, money needs to be spent wisely at the moment and not on hand-outs because BOP touism want a few extra dollars in their pockets. I have lived here all my life and if you ask me i actually thought it was busier this year than it has been previous years, maybe people are not spending as much due to the fact people just cant afford it anymore, because of all the freaking taxes we have to pay to cover **** like this!
cool..
Posted on 24-01-2012 13:13 | By sojourner
that would mean that the Kiwifruit industry could and should also get the Tauranga Council to pay for damages done by PSA. After all, why not blame the council for EVERYTHING that goes pearshaped in this area. I'll try to think of something I can get some damagecontrol money out of them for while the going is good.
Posted on 24-01-2012 13:33 | By traceybjammet
tourism BOP are a nightmare so I think they should look at themselves before blaming natural disasters and the like. Having a regular stream of visitors from overseas staying with me I am always amazed and slightly embarrased at how unprofessional the general tourist information etc is and in saying that I am not refering to the individual businesses that do thier best to welcome people to the area and show off BOP many charms but as for BOP tourism I wonder if they have ever pretended to be a tourist in the area? ?? just to see the real truth
Arrogant and Irellevant
Posted on 24-01-2012 15:06 | By xenasdad
What an arrogant and irrelevant request from the BOP Tourism drones! If your mighty industry is really worth the $450 million that you claim, then the extra $600,000 that you so badly need is a mere 0.133% of your claimed value. How incompetent a business group are you if you can't find that piddling % of income?? And how totally arrogant and unreasonable to even dream of asking the ratepayers to give their money to you, on what grounds?? Does he think that the average ratepayer gets ANY benefit at all from the "Pie in the sky hooey" spending by his organization?? Mr Bowker needs to either live in the REAL world, or find a suitable job for his mindset, something in the unreal grievance industry would be just his forte I reckon!
Prove their worth
Posted on 24-01-2012 20:22 | By Accountable
If tourism Bay of Plenty has been as unhelpful with everybody else involved with the cruise ship market as they have been with us they do not deserve any support at all.They have been in competition with every business involved by charging 10% for their services.Its hard enough for business,s to survive without the council controlled organisation charging over and above the rated amount they collect from us as well.We have been successfully running a free service for the cruise passengers for the last three seasons,at no cost to anybody but us, but this year TBOP and council will not allow us to run because they could not get 10% of nothing.It works both ways.If they want support from the business,s they first need to support the business's.With the attitude they have taken,considering they work for us the ratepayer, they don't deserve to be able to continue in their present form.As has been proved in the past slogans are here today and gone tomorrow so lets not give Auckland our money and save it for a better cause namely the local business's.
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