Latest TIA Blog

	Auckland Super City
	By TIM COSSAR - 23 September 2009

A national convention centre, great cruise ship port facilities, light rail between the airport and CBD, ultra fast broadband. The creation of an Auckland super city means that some of these much needed major infrastructure assets may finally become a reality.

Given that Auckland is our leading international visitor gateway, a major tourism destination and of critical importance to the whole New Zealand economy, our entire industry has a vested interest in the action taking place north of the Bombay Hills.

Work is being fast-tracked to merge the seven city councils and one regional council into one super Auckland council by the October 2010 local government elections. The new region-wide council will be responsible for 1.4 million New Zealanders and will be one of the biggest municipal cities in Australia and New Zealand.

A key goal of this mammoth restructure is to transform Auckland into the most exciting, vibrant metropolitan centre in Australasia, a region that will attract people and investment and has first-class infrastructure.

As Local Government Minister Rodney Hide said, the new region-wide governance arrangements will overcome the “competing interests, parochialism and factionalism that have held the region back for far too long”.

New Zealand tourism is paying the price for Auckland’s poor infrastructure. These changes present an opportunity to address this and transform Auckland into a world class city, capable of competing against destinations like Melbourne, Brisbane and Singapore that are currently investing more aggressively than Auckland to secure their position as leading cities.

The final shape of the new governance structure won’t be known until the end of the year, but we do know that there will be an integrated approach to planning for the whole region, with one regional infrastructure plan and one waterfront development agency.

The new super council will have a big task ahead. Auckland is New Zealand’s main international gateway but its congestion problems are acute. Both the road network and the city’s passenger transport network require constant improvement. Other infrastructure developments we’d like the new council to prioritise include a national convention centre and improvements in substandard port facilities for cruise vessels, given that this is one of tourism fastest growing markets.

Tourism businesses and Tourism Auckland will also be breathing a sigh of relief that the cost, duplication and complication of dealing with multiple councils and their different regulations, objectives and personalities will soon be a thing of the past.

Tourism Auckland, which currently receives funding from three of the region’s eight local councils, is also welcoming the opportunity to be guardians of one regional Auckland brand.

As they say, territorial local authority boundaries are irrelevant to visitors, and the existing eight local government brands only create confusion and clutter when it comes to representing Auckland in key visitor markets. The RTO is hopeful of an internal structure that delivers connectivity between the region’s ‘Main Street’ marketing entities and a regional major events unit.

The new Auckland super city will provide a platform for economic growth, for attracting events, visitors, investment, talent, immigrants. It presents exciting opportunities for our whole tourism industry, and with Rugby World Cup 2011 just on two years away, it can’t happen too soon.