Paid admissions during the six-month period fell 3% compared with the previous year, to 12,779. These sobering figures are a reminder of just how far reality has diverged from the promises made when the project was first proposed. The original feasibility studies projected 200,000 visitors a year and $26 million in annual net economic benefit—figures repeated by then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern when she announced a $10 million Provincial Growth Fund grant in June 2018.
The report says, bookings for the 2025/26 cruise season have
almost halved from their peak two years ago.
That’s not good news for the Hundertwasser. The plan to turn
around the loss-making tourist attraction had relied on more cruise ships
providing more paying visitors through the gates. It’s now pretty clear that’s
a strategy that will not deliver the numbers to turn around the $700k annual
operating loss.
So what’s Plan B? Is there a Plan B? If there is, then let’s
hear it.
Various reasons for the dramatic downturn in cruise ship visits
have been given, but the main ones are higher operating costs and port fees,
and more stringent “clean hull" regulations.
The comment was made during a debate about attracting more
visitors to the council's loss-making Hundertwasser Art Centre. Cr Halse was
not specific about the form the advertising would take. Perhaps he had in mind
something like "Left turn for Town Basin and the Warehouse where everyone
gets a bargain" or maybe something subtle like using the McDonalds “M”
logo in the sign to Te Ka“M"o.
We are not sure if Cr Halse was being serious, but needless
to say, he did not persuade the sign regulating authorities that it was a
genius idea.
As it happens, not only was Cr Halse’s idea rejected, so too
was the request for Hundertwasser-specific signage. The NZ Transport Agency Waka
Kotahi and WDC staff opposed it because there were already too many signs on
SH1 directing people to the Town Basin, and they pointed out, “road safety
guidelines require signs to be brief, clear and readable at a glance."
We wonder if that also applies to bilingual signs.
The 70,000 visitors “forecast” is
considerably less than the numbers presented to the public at the time the project
was promoted by Prosper Northland Trust, which had been formed to steer the
project. This is how they described it:
“Hundertwasser & Wairau Maori Art Centre is an unprecedented catalyst for growth in Whangarei District. The Deloitte Feasibility Study and Economic Impact Assessment have been reviewed and updated by leading Wellington-based consultants Crowe Horwarth, engaged by Prosper Northland Trust…This review confirms the Deloitte report as being conservative…Deloitte’s representatives stood in WDC’s Council Chamber in 2011 and expressed the utmost confidence that their findings would be vindicated. They found that even in the prevailing circumstances some 150,000 people would visit the art centre annually…
In the first four months of operation, the HAC had 37,000 visitors. That dropped to just 19,800 in the latter half of 2023. This had a direct effect on admission fees and gift shop revenue. The revenue from entry fees did not even cover the staff costs which are forecast to be $1m for the full year.
The total operating loss in the six months to 31 December 2023 was $765,000. That shortfall has been partly covered by drawing down $500,000 from a $2 million contingency fund created to support the trust during its first 10 years. $500,000 was drawn down previously and $750,000 “dissolved” after a guarantee provided by the Ngātiwai Trust was forfeited by the Whangarei District Council in a behind-closed-door meeting in August 2023. Only $250,000 of that $2 million fund remains after just two years.
The council is now drawing on a contingency fund set up to cover operating losses, but most of that funding has been drawn or will be drawn within the next 12 months. In short, the WDC and the Trust will need to turn the losses around. It will be hoping for a recovery in international tourists, but questions are again being asked about its long-term viability and the potential ongoing costs to ratepayers.
Moved By Cr Phil Halse, Seconded By Cr Gavin Benney
That the Council;