Te Tauihu – the north of the south

A more traditional view of wider inter regional partnerships could be viewed through the Te Tauihu relationship that Marlborough and Nelson Tasman have always had.

Connected via the eight regional iwi – who’s takiwā span significantly over both regions, the top of the south relationship has existed going back hundreds of years, connected on shared secure coastlines, warm climate and associated natural food resources – this is a wider area of outstanding natural beauty and collective creativity – The wider region attracts the life styler populations and has a history of boutique business innovation.

As the visitor gateway to the south, there are natural synergies when developing travel itineraries that lead from Picton and onto the West Coast – forming part of a wider NZ experience.

With so many similarities – wines, foods, warm waters and pristine coastlines – the Marlborough and Nelson Tasman could be seen as competitors.

Regional Marlborough stakeholder consultation has also indicated a tension between the two regions by many – some based on tradition government centralised decisions making emanating from Nelson, with a large hill and winding road creating space and distance perceptions.

Natural environmental planning frameworks – for example the Kotahitanga Mō Te Taiao Strategy point to common interest in the environment that tie neatly into local iwi land stewardship philosophy around Te Ao Māori and the relationship with Te Taiao – the environment. However, a wider, much more relevant issue lies with the top of the south island remaining in a slight travel vacuum – created via lack of wide body jet aircraft access to the region and leaving a pathway over the top of the region between Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington to Christchurch and Queenstown to the south. It is more likely that the Nelson airport – with its greater population will drive a longer wider airport facility, which could drive volume in the future to the top of the south. In 2017 Nelson airport attracted 1.2m passengers and was the 6th busiest in New Zealand, with Woodbourne Airport being the 12th business in New Zealand with about a 300,000 passengers in 2017.

Aligned with this issue is the comparative lack of high end internationally branded hotels in the Te Tauihu region – meaning fewer global marketing hotel resources are spent on driving visitor to the area – to satisfy shareholder return on large capital accommodation investments.

Visitor attractions – often end up being visitor motivational pawns in a much larger investor game of returns. The investment into an internationally branded 4 star + hotel in Blenheim may go some distance to marketing the region internationally via accommodation based wholesale and corporate distribution. The current globally branded hotels in the Northern South island Region – The Rutherford in Nelson (The Heritage Group) and the soon to be completed Sudima Hotel in Kaikoura – leaves Marlborough with a product gap costing the region in potential visitor nights and drawing high end tour groups to stay elsewhere.

REGIONAL AREAS

for top of the South Te Tauihu Boundary

WEST COAST TASMAN

MARLBOROUGH

KAIKOURA

HURUNUI

Takaka

Nelson / Whakatū

Blenheim / Waiharakeke

Ship Cove/Meretoto

The destination of Marlborough and neighbouring RTO’s – Having its cake and eating it

As a centrally located region with great access to air, rail, road, sea, cycle and foot–based transportation, Marlborough can enjoy a unique leveraging opportunity to add value to itself and neighbouring regional destinations. Air, sea, and rail all connect well to centres of Christchurch and Wellington, while the international market focus on Kaikoura can be extended by common east coast itinerary messaging. The traditional north to south flow by independent self–drive and coach touring as they explore the north and then the west coast of the South Island, will ensure that future relations with Nelson remain strong.

Key to these partnerships is the development of strong unique selling narratives – these then should always revert back to the Sounds, wine, seafood, outdoors, heritage & culture and aviation.

Yealands