Home turf: Michael Hill, at his The Hills course near Arrowtown, congratulates 2010 New Zealand Open winner Robert Gates back in January
The country’s tourism boss has joined the Prime Minister in recommending the New Zealand Open golf tournament should stay in Queenstown.
NZ Golf is considering relocating the tournament to Christchurch’s Clearwater course after three consecutive years at The Hills private course, near Arrowtown.
In an interview with Mountain Scene, new Tourism NZ chief executive Kevin Bowler says he’s “really optimistic” it will stay here.
“We certainly see that for NZ it presents fantastic photographic and hosting opportunities,” Bowler says.
“We think it’s got more tourism value if it was in Queenstown.”
Bowler, who talked to several key operators in town recently, also gave his views on other burning tourism issues.
Mountain Scene: Are you putting a lot of faith in the Australian market?
Bowler: “Australia’s the market that’s working for us the most effectively but it’s just as important for Tourism NZ to focus on those long-haul markets and make sure we get enough money going in there to restart those as well.
MS: The long-haul figures certainly haven’t been too flash for the last year or two though?
Bowler: The global economic crisis has affected long-haul travel from every market and the recovery has been slower than we’d hoped and slower than most people had expected. I think we can continue to see long-haul being challenging for the next year or so. Just in the last couple of months we are seeing a bit more pressure on the [long-haul] backpacker market than we’ve seen before.
MS: Can NZ survive as a destination if oil prices go through the roof and air travel becomes exorbitant?
Bowler: I think tourism’s got long-term potential but clearly fuel prices are going to be a factor in the long, long term and for some destinations it’ll become less affordable. But equally, we are close to Asia which has the fastest-growing group of economies in the world. New affluence in those markets will more than offset these oil impacts.
MS: Should accommodation operators swallow a bed tax to fund infrastructure in a small town like Queenstown?
Bowler: That might be something you want to consider but I know that the tourism marketing is funded from the operators, more so in Queenstown, anyway, so I’m not sure that’s entirely necessary.
MS: You rank the resort highly, though you can’t be seen to be too biased?
Bowler: I absolutely love Queenstown and I won’t keep it as a secret.”
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