Hamish Saxton grew up on a farm north of Hampden.
Having spent the last seven years as Hawke’s Bay Tourism chief executive, he will now take up the role of Tourism Waitaki tourism director.
The opportunity to return to the Waitaki District was too good of an opportunity to pass up, he said.
‘‘I’m a frequent traveller, holidayer and resident of North Otago and the Waitaki,’’ Mr Saxton told Allied Media.
‘‘Knowing the region as I believe I do, I felt that it was a great fit.
‘‘The Waitaki region has so much to offer.’’
Mr Saxton built his career by focusing on regional tourism, having held positions in Wānaka and Dunedin before moving to Hawke’s Bay.
‘‘When you consider that within regional tourism, there are currently about 29 regions in the country all vying for visitor attention, visitor dollars and aiming to achieve visitor nights and good spend ... it becomes a highly competitive environment.
‘‘Tourism and visitation is also highly seasonal: many of our regions are highly dependent on the domestic visitor as well so there always needs to be fresh reasons and fresh seasons to entice visitors to travel anywhere,’’ Mr Saxton said.
Tourism Waitaki is one of the few New Zealand regional tourism operations to function without council or ratepayer support, due to the income from the commercial visitation of Oamaru Penguins.
Tourism director is a newly created role within the organisation.
Tourism Waitaki board chairman Mike McElhinney said in a statement the creation of the role reflected the board’s confidence in the future of tourism in the district.
‘‘Tourism Waitaki and [Oamaru Penguins] each play an important role in how we welcome visitors, support the local economy, tell Waitaki’s story and protect one of our most treasured natural experiences.
‘‘With visitor numbers up and word catching on across the globe, creating this new role was essential to ensuring the district is set up for the next chapter of its tourism story.
‘‘This appointment will strengthen how Tourism Waitaki plans, funds and delivers its activities, ensuring day-to-day operations, visitor experience and conservation priorities are aligned, supported and positioned for long-term success.’’
Mr Saxton will start in July.
