Road to Recovery: Deputy PM confirms additional funding support

Published on 19 July 2023

Tourism Funding Announcement (2) 18 July 2023-medium.jpg
Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni has confirmed additional financial support for local initiatives to drive visitor numbers up for summer.

As well as being Deputy Prime Minister, Carmel Sepuloni is Cyclone Recovery Minister for the Coromandel. She announced another $200,000 has been allocated to support our Regional Destination Organisation Destination Hauraki Coromandel’s campaign to boost tourist numbers over summer. 

The campaign aims to counter perceptions about the region’s accessibility, and to attract and build summer bookings, to reduce further losses to our visitor-led economy. 

“This fund will help assist with recovery efforts after the cyclones,” Hon Carmel Sepuloni said in her announcement at our Council chambers in Thames.  

With the State Highway 25A network not reopening until the end of March 2024, businesses in the Coromandel are not getting the long weekend and peak period visitors they rely on,” she said. 

zac-harris-XpSIrTuzcc8-unsplash (1).jpg In June this year, electronic card transactions in our district were down 22.6 per cent compared to June 2022. This follows a similar drop in the figure for May. This spending drop is the highest for any tourism region in New Zealand, with Hawkes Bay and Northland registering drops of 10.8 and 10.6 per cent respectively. Auckland was up 10.3 per cent and Queenstown was up 13.5 per cent. 

This latest funding comes as a business sentiment survey shows businesses in our region are feeling an enormous amount of pressure, with over 20 per cent having made redundancies and considering more, 90 per cent had a decrease in sales volumes and 94 per cent expect further decreases.  

Our Mayor Len Salt says three things were critical to the Coromandel’s recovery from Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle:  

  1. the attention and direct communication of government ministers;  

  2. local voices in the Thames-Coromandel Independent Advisory group formed by previous Coromandel Cyclone Recovery Minister Michael Wood that Minister Sepuloni is keen to continue;  

  3. and the hard work of Council staff and the governance team of Councillors and Community Board members in making sure we remained on track. 

Destination Hauraki Coromandel General Manager Hadley Dryden says the new funding “gives us hope as we build for the most important visitor period of summer”.  

The Coromandel Road Trip map 

road-trip-map.jpg Tony and Luanne from the Coromandel Road Trip are producing their fifth regional visitor map promoting great things to see and do and where to stay in Hauraki Coromandel. Back in 2018, these locals spotted a gap in the market which they have successfully filled with four previous editions. 

The uptake of this map has been consistent with distribution in Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Waikato and locally through Information Centres and many sites throughout Hauraki Coromandel including VisitorPoint Coromandel Brochure Distribution sites. 

The upcoming fifth edition of the map could provide good visibility for your business. If you’re interested, contact Tony and Luanne on info@thecoromandelroadtrip.co.nz 

Funding and other support available 

This guide from the Cyclone Recovery Unit highlights the services, funds, and helplines available to support communities affected by the North Island Extreme Weather Events.

The guide is useful for people working in the community to help understand what support is still available to aid their response and recovery efforts. 

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