Te Anau businesses feel abandoned after suffering the greatest economic impact from the combined effect of two recent disasters.

An interim report prepared by Great South, outlines the serious economic and social impact on Te Anau and the wider Fiordland region from the twin disasters of unprecedented floods in February and border closures since March due to COVID-19.

The report indicates more than 359 employees (33%) in the local work-force, including 60 employees on work visas, have been laid off in the region and which has also suffered an economic downturn of more than 55%.

The report says Fiordland’s exposure to the international visitor market presented some significant challenges and it was likely that, even with a very effective domestic marketing campaign, expectations from that market would be no more than 40% of the previous tourist numbers and the associated economic and social benefits and Fiordland was likely to take longer to recover given its reliance on international visitors.

In the report, May 2020 visitor spending is shown to be down by $2.5 million, which is more than 55% on the previous May.

Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson, said “the Government has recognised the twin impacts from COVID-19 and the floods on Fiordland’s economy.”

He reiterated Budget 2020 investments of $13.7 million to help fix up the Great Walks like the Routeburn, which were damaged in the February floods, “not only will this create local jobs, but it will help the region get going again as we recover and rebuild from COVID-19. This is on top of the $13 million to help Fiordland to improve digital connectivity, announced by Shane Jones in February following the floods”.

“As well as opening up the economy, we’ve committed to supporting our tourism businesses to transition during this period of change. The $400 million Tourism Recovery Fund we announced in the Budget is already supporting the industry, through a $25 million investment to waive DOC concession fees for tourism businesses until June next year, and investments to protect key strategic tourism assets around New Zealand…”

While no specific extra support has been announced for Fiordland, Mr Robertson said that in terms of extra business support, which applies to all business in New Zealand, the Government has extended the wage subsidy scheme and the Small Business Cashflow Loan scheme also allows SMEs impacted by COVID-19 to borrow directly from the Government at zero interest if the loan is repaid within a year.

 “This is about giving businesses owners choice and the space and time to make decisions about the future of their businesses,” he said.

“Now, our focus is on uniting for the recovery so we can rebuild our economy. We’ll be making some more announcements in the near future about how we can use New Zealand’s reputation and world-leading position beating COVID-19, to bring new economic opportunities for this country. I know it’s been hard at times. But we beat this virus by working together, and that’s how we’ll get the economy moving again as we recover and rebuild.”

Wayfare interim Chief Executive, Ian Jackson, said from Queenstown that the economic impact in terms of Real Journeys and Go Orange operations in Fiordland was not lost on him.

His company has had to make carefully considered changes to realign their business to cater for a different mix of now solely domestic visitors.

Mr Jackson said the company was pleased to be able to turn on many of its iconic products, such as the Glowworm Caves trip on Lake Te Anau, as soon as they saw demand increase and added there was some confidence in visitor numbers sustaining beyond the school holidays through August, but it was too early to predict what September might produce.

Mr Jackson said he had recently spent a half-day with the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, and the Tourism Minister, Kelvin Davis, and said both had reinforced to him their understanding of the significance of the Fiordland region to the tourism industry.

He said he was able to press the point of a trans-Tasman bubble during their meeting and confirmed they understood the importance of tourism trade with Australia.

Mr Jackson said he was yet to be convinced that Fiordland had been the hardest his region and was yet to see numbers that confirmed that statement.

However, other business and community leaders in Fiordland say the region is struggling and extra support is needed.

Te Anau business owner, John Greaney, said it felt like the region had been abandoned and he was devastated at the lack of Government interest shown to the region.

“I’ve been in business on the (Te Anau’s) main street for 44 years and in that time I’ve seen a lot happen, but I’ve never seen the Government abandon us like this. I just feel like we’ve been forgotten about,” Mr Greaney said.

He said his business, like many others in the region, was completely reliant in international visitors and the sad thing was that, once lockdown was lifted, the rest of Southland was able pick up and to carry on but Fiordland was different.

Mr Greaney pointed out that businesses in Te Anau and Fiordland in general were mostly small and owner-operated without the leverage of larger, national focused companies and so the local business were less likely to be heard.

“It hurts when you see $10 million handed out to a business in a neighbour region,” he said, when small operators here were struggling to keep their valued employees paid and their doors open.

Mr Greaney said his businesses were forced to let casual staff go at the beginning of lockdown, but he had kept his permanent staff using the wage subsidy in the hope of some Government economic reprieve.

“The problem is we are too resilient”, he said, “and that’s actually to our detriment... we just roll our sleeves up and get on with it”.

The chief executive of Southland’s regional development agency Great South, Graham Budd, said the interim report was just that and Fiordland’s situation would continued to be assessed.

He said he had to be realistic about Crown Ministers being in touch, given the enormity of the problems right now.

He was confident that government support would become available to individual businesses through significant regional funding and that Great South had already been offering practical support with access to a variety of business tools and agencies.

However, other community leaders are also disappointed that more interest haven’t been shown to Fiordland given its special status and reliance on International Tourism.

Fiordland Community Board chairwoman, Sarah Greaney, said there was an ideal opportunity for the government to front up and show support for the region when they announced the waiving of the concession fees.

“They could have announced that from Te Anau, even although the fees have been waived for the whole of New Zealand, it would have been a nice gesture.”

Mrs Greaney said she, along with many others including the Southland District Council, Great South and Destination had been working very hard lobbying the Government for economic support for the region, but the district was made up of many small businesses, which made it difficult to attract funding.

She said there was a fear of losing the character of the region through the loss of small operator businesses.

Lakes District Council Mayor, Jim Boult, said his council was also aware of the struggle for businesses in Fiordland and had added its weight in support of applications currently in front of the various government agencies.

The manager of the regional tourism organisation (RTO) Destination Fiordland, Madeline Peacock, said her organisation represented more than 280 subscribed members and nearly all were small businesses. 

She said membership represented a diverse range of businesses in Fiordland including trades and services, churches and service clubs, as well as hospitality, tourism operators and transport providers.

The Fiordland RTO was unique in New Zealand in that, while it had the greatest and largest strategic areas, because of it subscription model, it had the lowest budget.

Ms Peacock said the country’s border closure had meant a massive change in marketing direction for Destination Fiordland, and that previously the organisation had had no real focus on domestic marketing.

 “Tourism is part of the fabric of who we are… it’s as if the life blood has been cut off.”