Benefits from government tourism infrastructure funding

Coromandel benefits from government tourism infrastructure funding

A toilet facility at the new Hahei Village Entrance car park has received $130,000 from the Government's Regional Mid-Sized Tourism Facilities Grant.

Tourism Minister Paula Bennett announced today $5.2M in co-funding for sixteen councils around New Zealand, including our Council's application for a new toilet facility at the Hahei Village Entrance car park, where our Park and Ride system operates to help manage visitor numbers to the extremely popular Cathedral Cove site. Approximately 27,000 people used the park and ride service over summer 2016-17.

“Visitor spending in Waikato is up 8% to an estimated $2.5B for the year to April and these new facilities will help the region respond to and benefit from growth in the local tourism sector,” Mrs Bennett says.

“While tourism is hugely valuable to the economy, it’s important locals continue to support the sector and are able to enjoy their own spaces – quality infrastructure helps with that," says Minister Bennett.

"This is a real bonus for our District and a step in the right direction with the Government clearly recognising the Coromandel as a place where we're seeing high tourism growth," says Thames-Coromandel District Mayor Sandra Goudie.

"There's still significant costs our Council continues to deal with when it comes to the growing demand for facilities for visitors and we will continue seeking Government support and funding where we can," says Mayor Goudie.
This is the second and final round of the Regional Mid-sized Tourism Facilities Grant Fund, which was announced at Budget 2016 to provide co-funding for infrastructure used by visitors and locals, such as car parks, toilets, rubbish disposal and minor water management projects.

The fund will be subsumed by the new Tourism Infrastructure Fund of $100M over four years, which will support local communities facing pressure from tourism growth and in need of assistance – areas with high visitor numbers but small ratepayer bases, for example.

Meanwhile Council staff will now be working on the design plan for the toilet facility at the Hahei Village Entrance car park, which we hope to have operational by peak summer 2017-18. The draft design is for a two-pan reticulated toilet on the car park site. Council will contribute approximately $50,000 towards the cost from its public Conveniences renewals budget for Mercury Bay.

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