Tourism businesses in Dunedin could be eligible for $1000 rebates if they can offset all of their carbon dioxide emissions.
The Dunedin City Council’s Enterprise Dunedin unit has started a carbon measurement incentive scheme to encourage broader use of sustainable tourism practices in the visitor industry.
"As we look towards a different approach to tourism in the future, it’s important we do the mahi now to start transforming our practices and identify where we can make improvements," Enterprise Dunedin manager John Christie said.
"Visitors are increasingly looking to support operators that are taking positive action to mitigate climate change and the first step is to evaluate and measure the impact of current activities."
Rebates of up to $1000 are available for each business that meets the criteria.
The scheme is open until March next year and funding will be drawn from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's strategic tourism assets protection programme, which was set up last year to help the industry survive Covid-19.
Comments
So the DCC will reduce it's OWN spending by $1000 every time they dish out a rebate to a tourism firm?!....More likely, Dunedin ratepayers will AGAIN foot the bill.
Fiscal responsibility is a word the DCC have never heard of!