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Aotea / Great
Barrier Local Board
27 July 2021
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Aotea / Great Barrier Island Destination Management Plan -
Auckland Unlimited
File No.: CP2021/10560
Te take mō te
pūrongo
Purpose of the report
1. Auckland
Unlimited in collaboration with Stafford Strategy are seeking the endorsement
of the Aotea / Great Barrier Local Board on a project to develop an Aotea /
Great Barrier Island Destination Management Plan (the plan).
Whakarāpopototanga matua
Executive summary
2. As
a result of COVID-19 impacts and restrictions, there is now a clearer
recognition of the value and costs of tourism to Aotea / Great Barrier Island
and its community.
3. Auckland
Unlimited have been working in partnership with Destination Great Barrier
Island (DGBI) including representation from mana whenua to manage the visitor
economy and enhance offerings on the island and will continue to do so by
developing this plan for a long-term positive outcome from the impacts of
tourism on Aotea / Great Barrier.
4. The
commitment is to develop the plan in a collaborative way, so that it will cover
and represent a wide range of stakeholder viewpoints and agendas. This ensures
issues and opportunities identified within local strategies such as the Aotea
Great Barrier Visitor Strategy, Aotea / Great Barrier Island Ecology Vision,
and Aotea / Great Barrier Local Board Plan 2020, and following consultation
with the council and CCO’s, local residents, businesses and iwi are
bought to light, to ensure the visitor economy is seen as a sustainable
industry on Aotea / Great Barrier Island.
Ngā tūtohunga
Recommendation/s
That the Aotea / Great Barrier Local Board:
a) endorse
the development of the Aotea / Great Barrier Island Destination Management Plan
as per Attachment A to the agenda report.
b) note
that the stakeholder engagement for the Aotea / Great Barrier Island
Destination Management Plan has begun with surveys and meetings in July and
endorse all remaining next key steps for engagement and development.
Horopaki
Context
5. Part of Auckland Unlimited’s traditional role on Aotea / Great
Barrier Island has been to work with the Local Board, mana whenua and DGBI to
develop a “long-term visitor strategy” to achieve sustainable
economic growth, this work has been heightened in terms of importance because
of the impacts from COVID-19. The strategy aims to attract longer stay visitors
to the island and add economic, environment and community value. One of the
critical issues we foresee is the need to investigate “carrying capacity
limits”, as we note that previous media comments from the community
especially on Aotea / Great Barrier has been centred on better managing
visitation and finding the “sweet spot” between encouraging solid
visitor numbers but not too many, so we can avoid over tourism risks going
forward. This is also a common and unified theme from community on the island.
6. We note that the importance and role of tourism on Aotea / Great
Barrier Island has grown significantly in recent years. The impact of this
visitor growth has been contested locally with considerable opposition to
low-value visitation and vocal concern from the local community over larger
influxes of visitors who predominantly do not understand the expectations and
realities of visiting Aotea / Great Barrier, often do not align with the
island’s values, and create unnecessary pressure especially at peak
season times. Many residents have chosen to live on the island for its intrinsic
values, including its unspoilt nature. Mass tourism is widely perceived to
threaten that nature and the sense of community – the quintessential
values that also contribute to making Aotea / Great Barrier and unique yet
popular destination.
7. This exercise will create opportunities including:
· alignment with the
community-consulted Local Board Plan
· delivering
sustainable destination management for Aotea / Great Barrier
· ensuring all of this
will align with the Destination AKL 2025 Strategy and Destination AKL Recovery
Plan
· ensuring this also
meets with the national destination management guidelines
· to help guide
Auckland Unlimited’s engagement with Local Boards from a destination
management perspective so a consistent and sustainable regional approach is
delivered across the wider Auckland landscape.
Tātaritanga me ngā
tohutohu
Analysis and advice
8. Options
considered:
· Do nothing and leave
the island to continue to operate in the tourism industry as it is now, highly
impacted from COVID-19 and with a large variety of conflicting and neglected
stakeholder groups.
· Develop a
longer-term vision and plan alongside all key stakeholders who have a viewpoint
within the tourism sector on Aotea / Great Barrier to firstly recover from
COVID-19 but then to operate in a sustainable, beneficial way.
9. The preferred option is to develop an Aotea / Great Barrier Island
Destination Management Plan partnering with mana whenua and working alongside
key stakeholders and in collaboration with Stafford Strategy. This would not
only align groups with differing agendas, but also identify opportunities for
the island with the plan to continue to develop in a more sustainable way.
10. This plan aims to serve the whole Aotea / Great Barrier region and
its various communities who are hyper reliant on tourism for a source of income
and wellbeing as an island. This approach clearly aligns to the outcomes of
both Auckland Unlimited as the city’s Regional Tourism Organisation, and
also the Aotea / Great Barrier Local Board.
Tauākī whakaaweawe
āhuarangi
Climate impact statement
11. There
are no particular impacts of climate change as a result of the recommendations
within this report however impacts will be considered during the development of
the plan.
Ngā whakaaweawe me
ngā tirohanga a te rōpū Kaunihera
Council group impacts and
views
12. Auckland
Unlimited will liaise with Auckland Council and necessary Council Controlled
Organisations (CCO‘s) during the development of this plan.
13. Sustainable
growth and development of regions within Auckland is a key goal and outcome
shared by all CCO’s and is at the core of the development of the plan.
Ngā whakaaweawe
ā-rohe me ngā tirohanga a te poari ā-rohe
Local impacts and local board
views
14. The
Aotea / Great Barrier Local Board area is home to an estimated 1,100
people however an unknown quantity of people visits the island per year.
Consequently, this means an enormous impact is felt by a small community who
make this tourism hot spot their home, but also their place of work. Economic
activity on Aotea / Great Barrier must balance development with impacts on
environment and infrastructure. This includes ensuring community lifestyle is
not adversely impacted.
15. With
the wider impacts of COVID-19 being felt on the island, but also throughout the
wider tourism industry, this is the perfect time to be developing a strategy so
that when international visitors return the island alongside the growing
popularity that Aotea / Great Barrier has gained in the domestic market, and
its stakeholder groups are well equipped to mitigate and manage the impacts
felt by the community.
16. The
development of the plan aligns with the Aotea / Great Barrier Local Board Plan
2020 objective to have sustainable tourism and implement sustainable
destination management alongside DGBI.
Tauākī whakaaweawe
Māori
Māori impact statement
17. The
scope of this plan has been developed in partnership with Destination Great
Barrier Island which includes mana whenua representation.
18. Future
development of this plan and identified flow on workstreams will involve
ongoing partnerships with Mana Whenua and Mataawaka.
19. The
first round of stakeholder workshops was held over two days in mid-July with
mana whenua in attendance at several of the sessions.
Ngā ritenga
ā-pūtea
Financial implications
20. Auckland
Unlimited is committed to funding, leading and developing the plan for Aotea /
Great Barrier Island in strong partnership and collaboration with local board,
mana whenua, community and industry.
21. Procurement
and financial processes will therefore be able to sit with one agency as the
engagement of a consultant / external neutral party will be vital in the
execution of this project.
Ngā raru tūpono me
ngā whakamaurutanga
Risks and mitigations
22. The
following risks and mitigations have been identified:
23. Further COVID-19 outbreaks and return to alert level 4 lock down
conditions.
24. This will force the closure of all businesses for the period of the
lock down and ability for research and stakeholder engagement to occur.
25. Lack of public support within the local community.
26. This would impact on the overall ability for the project to be
completed as gaining input from all stakeholder individuals, businesses and
groups is vital for a destination management plan.
27. Expectation of continued Auckland Unlimited leadership and / or
funding for implementation.
28. Action
points and strategic areas for implementation. The host communities and groups
may take the initial funding as the expectation that Auckland Unlimited then
funds follow up activity and action points.
29. To
mitigate this, it is vital that clear expectations of realities are set out
from the beginning by project lead, Auckland Unlimited.
Ngā koringa ā-muri
Next steps
30. Key steps to this project have already started and are outlined
below. Auckland Unlimited are extremely keen to continue to keep this project
moving.
31. Inception meetings with identified key stakeholder groups. This would be also be used to gather document review advice, report
locations and data collation.
32. Literature
review.
33. Stakeholder
consultation. Once a chance to develop the data sets and map accordingly to
illustrate trends and hot spots on the island, we would then look to set up a
series of meetings with key stakeholder groups and individuals. As stated,
these have started with the first round of consultation now complete in
conjunction with a community survey which has had excellent response rate.
34. Product
development assessment and trends. We would use the opportunity in the
stakeholder consultation from our own trips around the island to identify
potential for new product, and enhancements to existing product where possible.
35. Supporting
infrastructure. We would also assess the need for changes to supporting
infrastructure to help ensure the visitor economy as highly sustainable and the
island starts to address some of the current challenges.
36. Market
demand analysis.
37. Visitor
growth scenario planning.
38. Policy
alignment.
39. Follow
up stakeholder workshops.
40. A
finalised destination management plan by the end of August 2021. We would
look for feedback in between these two versions to ensure those who have been
consulted throughout the process, are happy they have not missed anything, or
an agenda has not been presented to their desires.
Ngā tāpirihanga
Attachments
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No.
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Title
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Page
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a⇩
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Regional Destination Management Plan
Summary Proposal
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11
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Ngā kaihaina
Signatories
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Authors
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Zac Watson - Product
Development Manager – Industry, Tourism Innovation, Auckland Unlimited
Annie Dundas - Programme Manager Food
& Beverage – Destination, Auckland Unlimited
Steve Armitage - General Manager –
Destination, Auckland Unlimited
Jacqui Fyers - Senior Local Board Advisor
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Authoriser
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Glenn Boyd - Local Area Manager
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