Kylie Hawker-Green, the new general manager for Destination Hauraki Coromandel. Photo: Jeremy Bright/www.grabb.co.nz
Hauraki Coromandel as a destination is on the "brink of excellence", according to the woman taking up the task of promoting the area, but Kylie Hawker-Green said issues still stop the region growing tourism, jobs and the economy.
Hawker-Green will begin as the general manager of Destination Hauraki Coromandel (DHC), the regional tourism organisation for Thames-Coromandel and Hauraki districts, near the end of November.
She'll leave her current role as New Zealand Major Events manager within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, where she led the team responsible for securing and delivering events like the FIFA Women's World Cup, Supercars Taupo 440, Sail GP and World Choir Games.
She said she chose to take on the role with DHC, as she had strong connections to the area.
"From my childhood, having holidays there in a family bach, right through to recent times with my family, we now have a property in Whangamata, so a really strong connection to place,"
Hawker-Green gave credit to the excellent job done by the current team at DHC, including Hadley Dryden, who had led the organisation for 14 years, and said many people already knew and loved visiting the area.
"Especially those that live in the upper half of the North Island, but there are so many people who've never experienced the area," she said.
"I think so many international visitors don't even know it exists, so the opportunity to attract new visitors to the region is something that I'm really excited by."
Infrastructure resilience in the area, especially on the peninsula, was an ongoing concern.
A recent Waikato Regional Council report showed Thames-Coromandel District was highly exposed to eight out of 10 main climate-related hazards.
Hawker-Green said local councils were lobbying central government to help build capacity and resilience into the area, especially the roading network.
"There is a requirement to obviously continue to make some noise to get those things improved," she said.
When the Cathedral Cove walking tracks closed in 2023, after damage caused by extreme weather, the area lost most access to its star attraction for over a year.
"That [closure] really has impacted on the district's rankings and awareness globally around the region, because suddenly the No.1 iconic attraction is closed for business, technically for a while," Hawker-Green said.
Cathedral Cove walking tracks were closed in 2023, due to damage caused by extreme weather. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Cathedral Cove was now accessible by land again, but Hawker-Green wanted to move away from the idea that the area [only had one or two things worth visiting at once or twice a year.
"You've got these moments of really incredible and really genuinely rich experiences that I don't think most of New Zealand are aware of, which are just on the doorstep," she said.
Building broader awareness of a range of attractions in the area and encouraging visitors outside of the peak season would be good for building a resilient economy, and providing steady employment options.
"The challenge for the regional tourism organisation is to try and balance out some of those visitation peaks and troughs to create that more stable employment environmen,t so that people have the confidence to create those permanent roles in their teams year round, because they can see they're going to have enough stable business to maintain their employment year round.
"Otherwise, you are going to continue to have those peaks and troughs."
Hawker-Green said there was a need to ensure that national training opportunities in the hospitality and tourism sectors were available and fit-for-purpose, and that those interested in the jobs could see a long-term career path.
There could also be a tension between the desire to attract more visitors to an area, and the community's willingness and ability to cope with that visitation.
"We know, just before COVID and the borders closed, there were some really strong tensions around social issues," she said. "You know, have we reached peak tourism?
"Are we over tourism? That's something that I think needs to be really closely monitored."
Hawker-Green also pointed out that small communities, which had a strong visitor economy, often had access to a greater range of restaurants, retail experiences and events.
"Those things wouldn't be there, if you didn't have the visitors to service them, because the base population is too small," she said. "It's that really broader benefit piece I think is always a really helpful narrative to keep in mind in terms of capacity."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
