Mountain-biking tracks tourism drawcards

While Mountain Biking Otago committee member Hamish Seaton did not overtly push the aspect of domestic tourism during his submission to the Dunedin City Council’s 2020-21 annual plan hearings, the topic was broached yesterday morning.

Cr Jules Radich asked whether an "iconic" track would "make a significant difference to our inbound tourism".

"Absolutely," Mr Seaton said.

"We’ve got the terrain, and being close to the city it would get huge use — not just visitors, but people who live in Dunedin, which is a bonus too.

"It’s not as long as some of the others but it’s got lots of points of difference.

"We’ve also talked about a track along the peninsula. And that would be absolutely world class — that’s probably a more saleable product."

The group has built 55km of multi-use tracks for all skill levels around the city.

The focus was at the 393m-tall Signal Hill Reserve site, and it estimates the value of the tracks to be more than $2million.

Mr Seaton asked for an increase in annual support — from $30,000 a year to $80,000 — for maintenance of tracks and asked the council to assist in the development of new tracks on Signal Hill Reserve.

Many councils around New Zealand committed an annual amount to the development of new mountain-biking trails, typically about $40,000, he said.

"It’s almost expected now. A lot of councils put money into developing tracks."

The Christchurch City Council had "pumped millions" of dollars into the Christchurch Adventure Park "but I would say we’ve got better riding here".

During Level 4, Health Minister David Clark mountain-biked at Signal Hill, breaching lockdown rules.