Waikato Business News July/August 2020

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20 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS July/August 2020 The Mighty Waikato welcomes everyone back All tourism businesses in the visitor economy have benefited from the influx of domestic visitors over the past few weeks, including accommodation, retail, hospitality, tourism operators, transport providers and event venues. TELLING WAIKATO’S STORY > BY JASON DAWSON Chief Executive, Hamilton & Waikato Tourism The Waikato region has jumped to third position behind Auckland and Christchurch on monthly domestic visitor spend for May 2020 according to the Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates published by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment. Although this is a 26 percent decrease in overall domestic visitor expenditure compared to May 2019, it is higher than the national average which is down 48 percent. The Waikato also scored the second highest level of domestic visitors during the recent July school holidays (4-19 July 2020) across New Zealand in a recently published report by Data Ventures which was commissioned by Tourism New Zealand. This followed the success of domestic travel returning into the region during Queen’s Birthday weekend. According to the report, Waikato achieved 19 percent growth in domestic visitor numbers during the July 2020 school holidays compared to July 2019, with an average of 55,140 domestic travellers visiting during the holidays, compared to 46,350 visitors this time last year. We were only second in the country to Auckland who attracted 79,160 domestic visitors into their region. With around 2.6 million people living within a threehour drive radius of Hamilton and the Waikato region, we are a significant domestic drive market for the Upper North Island. Air New Zealand also increased capacity during the school holidays into Hamilton Airport from our fly markets of Christchurch and Wellington which gave us the extra boost as well. Hamilton & Waikato Tourism has also been working hard to attract domestic visitors back to the region post- Covid, launching a number of marketing campaigns targeting the leisure, business and events market in key ‘drive and fly’ markets. Waikato residents responded really well to the ‘Mighty Local’ campaign during Alert Levels 3 and 4, and now our ‘Open for Exploration’ campaign in the leisure market for domestic travellers outside of the Waikato, the ‘Mighty Welcome’ campaign in the business events market and deals on our website www. waikatonz.com are helping to drive increased visitation and spend. These reported figures align to the anecdotal evidence we had from all our operators that they were “run off their feet” during school holidays. We are continuing to work with our industry to stimulate demand between now and the September/October school holidays, plus the lucrative spring/summer season. Hamilton & Waikato Tourism have also partnered with Tourism New Zealand’s ‘Do Something New, New Zealand’ national marketing campaign to ensure Waikato is part of a Kiwi holiday ‘must-do’ list. This ensures that the Waikato region remains top-of-mind for Kiwis who are looking for a holiday within New Zealand. We know that there is a strong demand for domestic holidays which is driven by a desire to support the local economy and to see more of New Zealand, both in the long and short-term. This is supported by domestic audience sentiment research from Tourism New Zealand which found that 64 percent of New Zealanders intend to holiday within New Zealand in the next 12 months. The research also found that 43 percent of those New Zealanders that intend to holiday within the next 12 months intend to spend more than they typically would on domestic holidays, with restaurants and cafes, accommodation and transport providers likely to benefit the most. To find out more about the Data Ventures reports on the July school holidays, Queen’s Birthday weekend and the domestic sentiment research, visit the Tourism New Zealand corporate website: www.tourismnewzealand. com/markets-stats/markets/ new-zealand/ Hamilton & Waikato Tourism is the regional tourism organisation charged with increasing international and domestic leisure and business travellers, expenditure and stay. The organisation is funded through a public/private partnership and covers the heartland Waikato areas of Hamilton City, Matamata-Piako, Otorohanga, South Waikato, Waikato, Waipa and Waitomo Districts. Find out more: www.waikatonz.com Bank not supporting you? Talk to us 0800 555 620 Broker enquiries welcome • Development finance WE HAVE MONEY TO LEND NOW! • Subdivision finance • Residential, commercial construction funding An experienced financier can make all the difference Tailor-made loan structures - Nationwide lending - Flexible LVR criteria 204411AA
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS July/August 2020 21 Recycling to the fore in Hamilton’s high-tech waste overhaul Hamilton City Council wants to increase the amount of waste diverted from landfill by 50 percent within three years, and EnviroWaste is playing a central role in making this possible. EnviroWaste is raising the bar on everything waste-related, from how we collect waste, to how it’s treated, and even how residents feel about what they throw away. Before submitting a bid for the Hamilton contract, the EnviroWaste team spent weeks on modelling, data analysis and budgeting to determine the viability of the project. When they won the contract in 2018, they then swung their attention from the conceptual to the concrete. Groups were set up to drive, inform and oversee the design of a collection and disposal/ recycling programme to meet Hamilton city’s needs. Setting up the new collection service has been a huge undertaking, requiring them to source and deliver approximately 180,000 bins to 59,000 households; establish a new fleet of collection trucks with a preference for electric vehicles; and recruit and train more than 30 drivers. But recovery and recycling are where EnviroWaste are truly expanding their capacity. Having owned one transfer station in Hamilton, they are now responsible for two, and will also take over management and operation of the Hamilton Organic Centre from July 2021. With challenging targets for diverting waste from landfill, they needed a bold strategy to make their sites as efficient and effective as possible. They considered every aspect of the operation, from purpose to plant, and then invested millions of dollars in new buildings, staff, machinery and equipment. The first site EnviroWaste targeted was their transfer station at the end of Sunshine Avenue, between the railway and Te Rapa Racecourse. The site is undergoing dramatic redevelopment including the construction of a new $10m Material Recovery Facility (MRF). The MRF will sort and bale around 8,000 tonnes of paper, cardboard, plastic and metals from local kerbside collections and commercial operators each year. A key feature of the new Hamilton MRF is an education room that overlooks the main floor, where visitors can observe the operation and team at work. People will understand, many perhaps for the first time, that the items they put in their recycling bin are seen, touched and sorted by fellow humans. The Sunshine Avenue transfer station will also include new access roads, a truck wash, automatic weighbridges and electrical charging stations for their collection trucks and light passenger vehicles. The site has been converted to deal exclusively with compacted commercial waste, leaving the council-owned site in Lincoln Street for domestic and loose building waste that has landfill diversion potential. The Lincoln Street transfer station will be converted into a Recovery Park and redeveloped to provide more options for re-use and recycling, and safer access which will be aided by redirecting truckloads of commercial waste to Sunshine Avenue. In addition to this, EnviroWaste has partnered with Habitat for Humanity, which runs two ReStore outlets in Hamilton. The charity will take over the recycling store at the Lincoln Street site, selling clothing, household items and demolition materials dropped off by residents and recovered from kerbside collections. With compostable material making up so much of the waste stream, EnviroWaste’s Power and Resource Recovery Centre at Hampton Downs is key to reducing landfill. Their organics processing facility at this site has been upgraded and expanded to handle up to 30,000 tonnes of organic material a year - a huge leap from the 4,000 tonnes it processed in 2015. Importantly, the upgrade enables composting to be shifted from the Hamilton Organic Centre, resolving past issues with noise, odour and run-off. Compost from the Hampton Downs facility will be returned to the food cycle via orchards, farms and gardens, including a community garden at the organic centre. A 2017 waste audit showed almost half the contents of household rubbish bags were compostable. With the introduction of separate recycling bins, a food waste collection and more recycling options, we expect a meaningful reduction in residual waste. EnviroWaste is impressed by Hamilton City Council’s leap of faith to invest in new equipment, plant and people – moving beyond a “haul and bury” system to focus on re-use. EnviroWaste is partner of choice for more than 21 New Zealand councils, and the Hamilton waste management project is their most ambitious to date. To meet the challenges of rolling out a complete and cost-effective solution for reducing, re-using and recycling waste, EnviroWaste has integrated new state-ofthe-art processes coupled with community initiatives that are proving successful in other regions around the country. - Supplied copy Tim Macindoe MP for Hamilton West 543 Te Rapa Road, Hamilton 07 850 6262 timmacindoe.national.org.nz macindoe.office@parliament.govt.nz Funded by the Parliamentary Service. Authorised by Tim Macindoe MP, Parliament Buildings, Wellington. COMMERCIAL WASTE AND RECYCLING SOLUTIONS We offer a range of collection services for businesses of all sizes. • Front load bins, gantry skip bins and huka bins • For general waste, recyclables, organics, clean fill and hard fill • Schedules and bin sizes to meet your specific needs For more information give us a call on 0800 240 120 or visit www.envirowaste.co.nz
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Waikato Business News July/August 2020

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