Late Items Agenda of Twizel Community Board Meeting

Twizel Community Board Meeting Agenda 8 June 2020

1.1 TOURISM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT – ANNUAL PLAN 2020-2021

Author: Tim Mulcock, Transition Manager

Authoriser: Suzette van Aswegen, Chief Executive Officer

Attachments: Nil

Purpose of Report

To inform the Twizel Community Board about the proposed improvement and changes in the Tourism and Economic Development budget for the new financial year from July 2020.

Staff Recommendations

1. That the report be received.

Background

This proposal arose from discussions with Mackenzie District Councillors in August 2019 regarding the future of the Twizel Information Centre. The current location of the Information Centre in the Twizel Council office, and the high visitor traffic volumes, has resulted in complaints regarding community members accessing the office for Council services.

Discussions with Twizel Promotions and Development Association and other Twizel tourism operators showed that, while there was an openness to considering different options for the Information Centre a more holistic review of the tourism and economic development budget altogether would be useful.

The key aspects of the budget are (with approximate proportions):

· Twizel Information Centre ~20%

· Christchurch NZ visitor marketing RTO services ~60%

· South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce business support services ~14%

· Visitor amenities maintenance services ~16%

As the development of options was progressing Mackenzie District and our communities have been impacted by COVID-19. This has required a reassessment from the following perspectives:

· Public health

· Mackenzie district tourism industry impact

· The need for increased business support services

· Reassessing solutions for delivering the highest level of public value

The Tourism and Economic Development budget has been revised accordingly to ensure that it maintains similar revenues from the targeted business rates and overall expenditure. While achieving this, the proposal is also likely to see improvements to levels of service and public value delivered.

SUMMARY OF EXISTING CHALLENGES

· Visitor traffic through the Twizel office is estimated at ~200 per day during winter, and ~400 people per day over the summer season. This has a large impact on community members, other customers and Council staff engaging in day-to-day Council business.

· The Information Centre is provided 7-days over summer. It has been increasingly challenging finding suitable part-time staff to operate the service outside of Council business hours.

· Increasing numbers of online booking of tourism activities, has decreased the legacy commission revenue to the point of insignificance against costs incurred in operating this aspect of the Information Centre.

· Sale of post-cards and other low value tourism items are not core focuses for Council and the cash-handling process and costs significantly impact on the net return.

· The Twizel office is small and, even with the proposed renovations, it will be fully occupied. The Information Centre takes up a significant floor area (about 90sqm). Use of this space for Council rather than visitor services would extend the useful life of the building for Council operation.

· True costs of the Information Centre are not being recognised with Council subsidising rent, utilities, computer equipment, etc. Information Centres around New Zealand are largely loss-making and many have closed. This is further impacting to the current shift towards domestic tourism.

· A large proportion of our tourism budget is spent with Christchurch NZ with a focus on developing tourism, with a very small proportion of the budget spent on the management of tourism growth and economic development.

· Following COVID-19 it is recognised that the public health risk for open visitor centres has increased exponentially.

TOURISM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN

The plan for the 2020/21 year is to implement minor changes within the four aspects of the budget to improve services while, in parallel continuing the larger community engagements of the Destination Mackenzie initiative and Long Term Plan review to establish a longer term visitor strategy for the district.

A key strategic improvement is the establishment of two positions within Council to bring greater focus to managing tourism and provide enhanced economic development support and improve our communication with our community about these activities.

Key improvements in each budget area are summarised in the following sections.

1. Twizel Information Centre

The Twizel Information Centre will become a “virtual” Information Centre available 24 x 7. This change will be developed in two phases.

Phase One will provide outdoor access to Information Centre Services to be completed by the end of July utilising:

· A large screen promoting www.mackenzienz.com website to be installed facing outwards from the front Twizel council office meeting room window. A rolling video will be developed to promote Mackenzie tourism businesses and align with current Christchurch NZ marketing programmes.

· (Managed) Public WIFI will be provided from the Council office so that visitors can access and book accommodation and activities independently.

· Signage and A4 brochure about the virtual Information Centre will be available

· An outdoor weatherproof brochure rack will be brought out each business day for visitors to access paper brochures.

Phase Two includes the establishment of the Virtual Information Centre which is envisaged to include the following (this phase is estimated to be completed by the end of September 2020):

· A self-service kiosk to be instated within Market Place with enhanced www.mackenzienz.com available for visitors to search and make bookings.

· Extended (managed) public WIFI in Market Place (following UFB fibre roll-out).

2. Christchurch NZ visitor marketing RTO services

The contact with ChristchurchNZ has been renegotiated in recognition of the changes, the impact of COVID-19 on our tourism industry and to bring more transparency, accountability, reporting and engagement with local Mackenzie tourism businesses. This contract will be managed, in relationship with the community, by an internal tourism liaison resource.

3. South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce business support services

Requirements for accountability and reporting has been built into a new contract with South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. Management of this contract and two-way communication with the Mackenzie business community will be managed by the new Tourism Liaison Officer position. These services will align with an Economic Development strategy for the district developed as part of a new internal Economic Development resource.

4. Visitor amenities maintenance services

This section of the budget includes, for example, maintenance of the Alps2Ocean cycle trail, visitor public rubbish collection, public toilets, etc.

These management of these services will come within the responsibility of the internal tourism liaison resource.

Conclusion

The public health and economic impact of COVID-19 on the Mackenzie District has required a revisioning of the Tourism and Economic Development budget to improve outcomes for the district over the next financial year. The changes will also help to address long-standing concerns raised by ratepayers and tourism businesses.

Twizel Community Board Meeting Agenda 8 June 2020

1.2 TWIZEL EVENTS CENTRE ACCESS UPGRADE

Author: Tim Mulcock, Transition Manager

Authoriser: Suzette van Aswegen, Chief Executive Officer

Attachments: Nil

Purpose of Report

To inform the Twizel Community Board about the proposed improvement and changes to the Twizel Events Centre access and security system.

Staff Recommendations

1. That the report be received.

Background

Access to the Twizel Events Centre has been managed by a Tecom Challenger alarm and access control system. This allows users of the Centre to swipe into the main door for access. The system consists of a hardware panel, directly connected to a computer (that runs the Titan management software), and to a swipe panel at the front door.

The system has not been maintained and due to a lack of understanding about how the system works, the connected computer has been turned off at the end of the day and as a result the system no longer consistently validates members.

Door keys are also provided for internal doors. Keys have been problematic, breaking off in the Gym door from time to time. Gym access also allows members full access to the other areas in the complex (squash courts, basketball court, showers, as well as gym).

Keys and access cards have been provided for some 2,000 people over time but there is uncertainty about who they all are and whether they are current with their membership fees.

A previous attempt has been made to migrate the existing panel to the version but due to the exceptionally large number of users the migration failed.

UPGRADE SOLUTION

After discussions with stakeholders and research into options an upgraded solution has been developed that would allow secure keyless access to different zones through the centre complying with health, safety, and fire protection requirements.

Two suppliers were invited to quote to upgrade the current system (Supplier A and Supplier B).

Both companies provided an on-site inspection.

Following an evaluation of the quotes the decision has been made to award the contract to supply, install and support the new access system to Supplier B. Their proposal had significant advantages:

· The Supplier B system is wireless, reducing the cost and impact of installation and support. The solution does not depend on electricity being available.

· Swipe Fob configuration across any combination of zones can be managed remotely by the Twizel customer services team.

· Supplier B provided a pro-active site inspection and identified compliance and safety issues with the Sports Hall and Gym doors. They also provided solutions.

· The Supplier B proposal was cheaper.

The solution is also compliant with fire regulations and is not dependent on electricity supply.

ZONE DESIGN

The Supplier B solution proposed allows the small circular swipe fobs to be configured for access to one or more zones. The zones proposed are:

Zone 1: Main Front Door (necessarily also allows access to toilets and showers that are unlocked)

Zone 2: Squash Court South

Zone 3: Squash Court North

Zone 4: Sports Hall (swipe access on both internal doors and fixing the external access)

Zone 5: Theatre (allows access to the main internal doors (at the top of the stairs) and also to the external disabled access outside the main door).

Zone 6: Kitchen (swipe access on one door – the other can be opened from the inside when required)

Zone 7: Gym (swipe access on internal and external door – fixing that to align with fire regulations)

Zone 12: Gym PT room. (Making this door compliant with fire regulations for single-hand exit).

Zone 8: Storage cupboard 1

Zone 9: Storage cupboard 2

Zone 10: Storage cupboard 3

Zone 11: Community Lounge (the concertina door will be secured from the inside and swipe access provided via the external door).

DEPLOYMENT PROCESS

We are already well underway with an audit of the users on the current system and are comfortable that we can achieve a smooth technical configuration. From the perspective of the Twizel Events Centre users we will providing a high degree of communication – before, during the migration and afterwards. The key stages with the project are:

1. Complete commercial negotiations

2. Prepare communications (with stakeholders and public)

3. Finalise with Gym Committee (Gym) and School (Sports Hall)

4. Finalise timeframes and start communications

5. Staff training and finalising support documents

6. Installation and user migration

7. Go Live - More communications

8. More communications

9. Review

Conclusion

The solution proposed provides a modern contact-less access and security system compliant with health, safety, and fire regulations.

The Salto system is also extendable to other areas, such as the cleaners’ room and theatre projection room, if later this is seen to be useful.