Sophie Barker began a debriefing on parking issues for tourism operators yesterday by passing out pens and maps of Dunedin.
She asked the 20-odd tourism operators there to circle ''problem areas'' on the maps.
''I wanted to have this meeting to talk about parking issues - and I know there are some,'' the Enterprise Dunedin business development officer said.
She was right.
The room almost instantly erupted into complaints.
Good Company Tours owner Richard Trainor had two parking tickets on company vans this season, tickets he would not have received if tourism was prioritised in parking space design, he said.
He added that, in his opinion, ''when in a coach, Dunedin is a bit of a hard place to show people''.
Enterprise Dunedin trade sales representative Gil Abercrombie fired back that, comparatively, Dunedin was ''not that bad''.
''I'm not saying that we don't have to make it better, but let's keep it in perspective.''
Other meeting attendees highlighted problem spots where they thought parking was inadequate - Speight's Brewery, the railway station, Dunedin Botanic Garden and Baldwin St.
Several tourism operators also took the opportunity to air other grievances related to tourists' experience of Dunedin, including the cleanliness of public toilets, street cleaning, lawnmowing, and seats for those waiting for cruise ship shuttles in the Octagon.
Throughout the parking debriefing, Ms Barker urged attendees to submit formal complaints and possible solutions so that she could ''put them through to council''.
''It's important to not just say, 'This sucks', but finding a solution that works for everyone,'' she said.
Many tourism operators expressed concern about parking across the road from a tourism attraction and putting elderly or disabled tourists at risk when crossing busy streets.
Ms Barker shared the concern, saying later that if a tourist was injured or killed by a car, it would ''kill our reputation''.
Further meetings yesterday afternoon as part of the Dunedin cruise debriefing focused on the importance of the tourism industry to Dunedin, including the amount of money cruise ships are estimated to have contributed to the city economy this season ($30 million) and an expected 13% increase in cruise ship passengers visiting next year.
Ritchies coach driver Peter Lees said the economic benefit of cruise ship tourists was even more of a reason to put money back into Dunedin's tourism industry.
''There's a lot of talk about how much money these people bring into the city, but they don't seem to be able to spend a little to help them out,'' he said.
