He Who Mistreats His Guests, Has A Dusty Marae

The Whakatane District Councils approval of the Whakatane Visitor Information Centre relocation is ineptitude at its finest. A signature move from a group of Councillors that continue to display that they're not only out of touch with a large percentage of their constituents, but that their short-sightedness knows no bounds.

Whakatane has long-struggled to attract tourists. Without the hard work of local tourism operators who paved the way, visitors would be rolling along that old Auckland-Wellington tour bus route; One day in Auckland, one day at Waitomo Caves, one day in Rotorua and one day in Wellington is how a lot of North Island package deals were sold to tourist when I worked for a large tour bus company. An East Coast excursion was an add-on that we struggled to sell even with my championing of White Island tours, East Coast diving and yarns with true-blue locals. The fact was, and still remains that Whakatane is a remote outpost in the eyes of tourists.

What a great way to repay the visitor with the sense of adventure to try our slice of paradise. Let's move the VIC away from it's location that literally frames our greatest attraction: the ocean. Let's move the main source of visitor information away from the major bus stop in the town. The next time you're going to stay with relatives, try parking ten minutes away and lugging all of your gear to their house.

I've worked in an Information Centre. One that, when I started, was in the middle of a multimillion dollar upgrade by the very same people who designed Whakatane's new Museum and Library building. We worked out of a prefab, plonked to the side of the i-Site being built, with no public toilets and at times no functioning bus stop. Tourists were frustrated, confused and bewildered that we couldn't provide them with the services they needed once they arrived in the city. The bus drivers took to dropping visitors directly to their accommodation, bypassing our services and reducing our bookings and lowering our earnings.

Whakatanes new Library and Exhibition centre is being purpose-built. No where on the plans did I see any mention of an Information Centre. To squeeze this service into the new building to save a couple of bucks is incredibly short-sighted. The Councillors that voted for this relocation for the sake of $48 000 in annual savings obviously don't know the value of word of mouth. The value of treating your visitors well can equal them telling their friends and family back home or their fellow tourists they meet in a backpackers in the next town.

We need to encourage visitors to our town and sell our point of difference: our beautiful CBD with views to Whale and White Islands, our friendly people and a great little information centre at the heart of it all.

Tangata takahi manuhiri, he marae puehu.



Can someone please edit this into a letter to the editor for me? Many thanks.

2012

Might be doing something this year.

If you're down to read, I'm down to write.


Happy 2012!

I-Site To Move?

Do me a favour and don't move the Information Centre into the new library/museum building. That is 100% ridiculous.

Whoever is pushing for that is eleven types of wrong. What is wrong with people?

Small Town Economy

Ever get the feeling that the money just moves around the same circles in this town?

How you been?

Goodnight Sweet Prince

Now is the hour for me to say goodbye.

Eye On Kope has been running for two year as of tomorrow. It's been great fun and as I mentioned in an earlier post, I've achieved more than I imagined I could.

$1 Pies has been a great art project and although I tried quite hard to keep my identity secret, it wasn't long before people figured it out. I think there has been a distinct change in the tone of the posts since I was in the paper and people started realising who I was. It just became harder and harder to write from an aloof perspective.


My hope is that you've enjoyed reading the updates and that they have made you think about this area we live in. Hopefully it has inspired you to do something to better this town or better the poeple in it. Maybe it didn't, that's OK. If it made you go out and buy a pie from New World, that's good too.


The comments were the thing that made the blog worthwhile and I want to thank our regulars for all their comments. Often times their writing was better than the article they were commenting on and they were hilarious to boot. Thank you to everyone who commented.

Thank you to everyone who supported the various things I did in conjunction with the blog. The people who bought t-shirts, attended the Soda & Slice night, downloaded the mp3s and picked up the zine. Thank you very much.

To the local media who not only covered my exploits from time to time, but provided 99% of the content that formed this blog - thank you so much. I have been so busy lately and every day I see stories that I want to write about and comment on. The work done by the various people at The Beacon and the 1XX Newsdesk has made this blog what it is. Thank you.

To anyone who has read the blog, recommended it to their friends, linked it or sent me hate mail. Thank you very much.

Thank you to my wife and family for putting up with me writing blog posts every night when I should have been doing other things like dishes, helping with homework and the rest of it.


Thank you to youall for making Eye On Kope such a success.


Kind regards,


$1 Pies

Boy Does Good

How about Boy smashing it at the New Zealand Film and Television Awards? Hard out.

I really need to see that movie again, but from memory it was good and those seven awards are very much deserved.

Chips Ahoy!

Sometimes I bike home from work and I look around the town and just marvel at what a beautiful place it is and how it is filled with beautiful people.

The news that one of the finalists in that one competition to come with a new flavour of chips is from Whakatane is just the icing on the cake.

I for one think that Butter Chicken chips are a brilliant idea. I was going to enter 'Roast Potatoes with Aioli & Tomato Sauce' but I thought I might be alone on that one.

If you see the chips for sale in town, please let a honky know.

Well done Tiina Sirkku.