Speaking at this week’s Waitaki District Council meeting, Tourism Waitaki chairman Mike McElhinney revealed the Tourism Waitaki board was in the process of recruiting for two new roles, which would free up Blue Penguin Colony general manager Dr Philippa Agnew to return to more scientific study.
"It’s fair to say that three years in a holding pattern just with awaiting direction and we’ve had to say that Dr Philippa can’t sustain the workload that’s put on her and we can’t deliver the expectations of the Letter of Intent and expect her to undertake to do that, Mr McElhinney said.
"Therefore, the board has taken the initiative to do a restructure model; we shared that with our stakeholders at the stakeholder meeting recently."
Dr Agnew, previously the organisation’s only paid employee, said the move was welcome.
"We’re bringing other management positions into line so that we can share the load. It means that I can progress a lot of that science work, like I was doing before, because we’ve got some really interesting things happening and we can lead the science because we’ve got a lot of really important data that we can use to support little penguin populations around the country."
Dr Agnew had recently hosted the biannual Penguin Symposium that drew about 100 penguin experts from around New Zealand to Oamaru.
Mr McElhinney said the Little Blue Penguin Colony side of Tourism Waitaki’s business was doing well.
"A lot of positive things are happening at the penguin colony in terms of the redevelopment projects that we’ve got on the way there. Visitation numbers are back to pre-Covid days, which is absolutely outstanding.
"The website has been developed and then the internal part of the building has been developed to enhance the daytime experience with the idea of being to attract more visitors during the daytime and allowing us to monetise that part of the business.
"The other big areas that we’re working on in the colony is the new stand, which we’ve gone out to tender with.
"It’s been an interesting market in terms of tourists coming into the region. We’re ahead of the national average. Tourism has been down nationally about 33%, 38% and that’s tourist numbers and revenue."
Waitaki was about 7% up on pre-Covid levels, Mr McElhinney said.
"So, we’re ahead of the national average, which is a reflection of good work that Tourism Waitaki has been doing in the external market and that’s where we play most of all, outside the region and attracting people."
