Great South launched The Murihiku Southland Destination Strategy 2023 — 2029 during an event at Transport World in Invercargill on Tuesday.
It included key insights and potential opportunities for the region including an aquaculture precinct in Bluff, a new museum for Southland and establishing the region as a dark-sky sanctuary as well as a cycling destination.
Great South destination development manager Amie Young said the idea of the strategy was to ensure foundations were laid for a more sustainable and regenerative visitor economy.
The Beyond 2025 Southland Regional Long Term Plan pointed to tourism as a key opportunity for the region’s growth economy, she said.
Pre-Covid, tourism was the fourth-highest earner for the region, bringing in about $692 million.
"It is a really crucial step in our reimagining of tourism. It’s a plan for all Southlanders.
"We’re looking at a much more holistic approach than purely marketing — which may have been the case in the past — and looking at developing the industry so that [can] contribute to the economic, social, cultural, and environmental well-being of our people and our place."
She said the plan was heavily influenced by the community as they conducted surveys across the region which showed 85% wanted to see tourism grow in the region.
The plan was divided into key areas — environmental stewardship, leadership and capability development within the sector, access and infrastructure, experience and product development, Mrs Young said.
It included 63 projects, with 24 priorities and it recommends project enablers including the need to establish a tourism leadership group.
While areas that were already quite popular by the international market such as Milford Sound and The Catlins would continue to be an important part of the region, they wanted to diversify the opportunities and bring tourists to other parts of Southland as well, she said.
"What we want to really achieve with this plan is obviously to really disperse the benefits of tourism around the region and alleviate some of the pressure that might be felt at times in most places.
"We want more of our communities to benefit from tourism, so we’ll be looking at ways to help spread that around with new product development in different locations and really building a story for all parts of Southland."
