By National Tourism spokesperson Todd McClay.
National’s Tourism Accelerator would provide for hundreds of potential new projects across the tourism sector to stimulate demand and support hundreds of thousands of workers.
The $100 million co-funding scheme is targeted at providing tools to the tourism sector as a whole to design and implement initiatives that will help drive up demand and support the workers that are at-risk.
In contrast, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis confirmed in Parliament yesterday that only around 60 tourism businesses will be supported by the Government’s strategic asset protection programme under its Tourism Recovery Package.
With an estimated 38,000 tourism businesses in New Zealand, this would equate to just 0.2 per cent being supported with this fund.
What’s worse, the Minister cannot or will not provide answers on whether there has been any modelling or estimates on how many jobs will be saved by his fund.
This shows an astounding lack of strategic thinking and creativity by the Government, not to mention lack of discipline when it comes to getting the best value from taxpayer spending.
The tourism sector is on the front line of the economic impact of COVID-19 and faces continued pressure as borders remain closed.
This crisis has been rife for months now, yet the Government still lacks a clear plan on how it will save tourism jobs and keep the sector afloat. Their ill-targeted $400 million fund hurriedly announced on Budget Day is not a plan.
