New Visit Fiordland boss Stu Cordelle is sticking to his guns over Te Anau's endless summer.

Cordelle, who's only been in the job three weeks, launched something of a surprise marketing campaign on Newshub on Saturday night.

When the clocks spring forward this coming Sunday, the idea goes, they will never be moved back in the Southland tourist town.

'It's Te Anau Time' aims to encourage visitors to stop and spend more time in Te Anau, and also highlight the extra hours of sunlight this part of New Zealand enjoys over the North Island.

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Billboards were up by Monday morning.

The campaign has met with mixed reception, with many happy to have some attention on the beleaguered town, others embarrassed, and yet others thinking the whole idea is beyond belief.

But Cordelle says he's serious about the concept, developed with Great South.

"We were talking about daylight savings and how much extra time we have down here, and developed the idea of 'Te Anau time'.

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"We thought 'hey, let's not turn back the clocks and stay on daylight savings'.

"It's definitely a marketing idea and where it goes from here, we've still got to work through that process . . . but at 10'oclock at night you can still be doing stuff down here."

Cordelle says there could be clocks in accommodation places displaying 'Te Anau Time', while visitors would be encouraged to set their watches on arrival.

"It's a bit of a play on 'island time'. One of the things we have here is time, it's very relaxed.

"You have way more time to do things, you can go on jetboat ride or hike and not get back until 9 or 10pm. It's one of the advantages of coming here."

Visit Fiordland manager Stu Cordelle

The Department of Internal Affairs says there's nothing to stop Te Anau keeping its own time, in theory.

"Daylight Saving Time is set by regulation, so the official time for Te Anau will remain the same as for the rest of the country," says DIA spokesperson Anita Balakrishnan.

But, she says, "there is nothing preventing Te Anau businesses from operating at different hours if this would benefit people visiting Fiordland."

The DIA has no plans to review the Time Act 1974 or the New Zealand Daylight Time Order 2007, however, and Balakrishnan says there's no evidence people want it changed across New Zealand.

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Southland mayor Gary Tong backs the idea, with Fiordland hit hard by the closure of international borders and the lockdown.

"There's been some interest across the nation, that's for sure, and I think it's a great concept to get people talking about Te Anau and Fiordland," Tong says.

"It's not something we can actually make happen, moving the clocks, but the extra daylight should be a drawcard for the people in the North Island.

"I hope no one's critical of it, because the idea is to get people engaged, and the way to do that is to get Fiordland in the front of people's minds."

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But there is some negativity about the proposal, not least because many tourism operators were unaware of the campaign before they saw it on TV.

Mel Gaudin, of Milford Kayaks, says: "It was one of the main stories on the news, and that's why people are believing it.

"I just thought 'oh my God, how embarrassing for us'. We don't need to be a laughing stock. The idea we'll just ignore the Government.

"No one knew about it. They haven't said a word to us about the campaign.

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"I understand there's a bigger picture, but oh my God."

And Peter Kirker, owner and skipper of Cruise Te Anau, doubts it will ever happen.

"It's a great marketing ploy, are people taking it seriously? It's only a marketing ploy, there's no way in hell they're going to be allowed to have two time zones in New Zealand.

"Imagine trying to catch a connecting bus."

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He doesn't believe international tourists will be back in big numbers for five years, but also doubts the domestic market can pick up the slack.

Cordelle holds his hands up over the rushed nature of the campaign, and the lack of consultation.

"We've talked about the campaign for a couple of weeks and last Wednesday our team said 'why don't we go out to the media to see if there's any interest?'.

"And on Thursday, we had TV3 say 'yep, we'll be sending a crew down tomorrow'. So it was all pretty crazy and hectic, and we had to rush around and get some operators to come out and help us.

"We're actually in the process now of getting the information out to all operators, so they'll all be receiving stuff in the next couple of days."