Govt funding could help golf tourism

Government funding could be one answer for boosting Dunedin’s golf tourism, an area of the tourism industry a former golfing professional says the city is missing out on.

Greg Turner said in February the city could be collecting part of a $300 million industry that had grown in New Zealand.

He called for the Chisholm Links course in Dunedin to become the city’s destination course for golf tourism, and wanted the Dunedin City Council to help with water rates relief.

Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie said that had motivated him to get in touch with city golf courses to discuss what the council organisation could do in terms of marketing.

‘‘There’s a lot of ways we can help them in terms of that promotion,” he said, including promoting golf packages to people visiting for conferences.

He had also discussed the Chisholm Links issue with Mr Turner, but that had implications for other council departments, rather than his.

Mr Turner said he expected to speak again to Mr Christie about the issue, but pointed to recent comments by Tourism Industry Association New Zealand (Tianz) chief executive Chris Roberts as another way forward.

Mr Roberts, in an opinion piece for the Otago Daily Times, called for government assistance for tourism infrastructure ‘‘beyond toilets and car parks”.

He said at the moment the Government gave $113 million a year for Tourism New Zealand to market the country, and international visitor revenue alone was $13 billion, ‘‘an incredibly good return on its investment”.

Mr Roberts said this week it was time for the Government to take a closer look at how it helped communities invest in their infrastructure, which ‘‘will assist New Zealand overall”.

‘‘I think the ideal situation would be a pretty substantial fund of $50 million to $100 million that anybody with a good investment idea could apply to.”

Tianz had had initial discussions with the Government about that and while it was a ‘‘wait and see” situation, he was hoping for good news in this year’s budget.

Mr Turner said that thinking, with a golf lens on, was ‘‘in that sweet spot”.

‘‘I think any project at Chisholm would be ripe for one of those tourism-type funds.

‘‘They generally expect it to be a partnership with local funding, but it fits in really nicely with their national strategy.”

Source: Otago Daily Times