{"id":399740,"date":"2026-04-27T10:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T10:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399740\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T10:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T10:28:10","slug":"six-figure-losses-tairawhiti-tourism-hit-hard-by-state-highway-closures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399740\/","title":{"rendered":"Six-figure losses: Tair\u0101whiti tourism hit hard by state highway closures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Across January and February, sections of the Waioweka Gorge were closed for a total of 24 days.<\/a><\/p>\n

Duncan said she had not been contacted by any government agencies besides Tourism Industry Aotearoa<\/a> following the recent Cyclone Vaianu<\/a> weather event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking to not be seen and for people not [to be] seen by even our regional tourism board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan said \u201cbasic things\u201d like potholes were making highways dangerous to drive on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn New Zealand, we drive on the left, and in Gisborne, we drive on what\u2019s left.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think tourism is [being] considered [by decision-makers] … wh\u0101nau lose confidence in coming here because of the vulnerability of getting home again.\u201d<\/p>\n

In New Zealand we drive on the left and in Gisborne we drive on what\u2019s left.<\/p>\n

Cycle tour business owner Katrina Duncan<\/p>\n

Chris Savage has been running Dive Tatapouri with husband Dean for 26 years. The business hosts close encounters with stingrays off Tatapouri Beach.<\/p>\n

Business was significantly down compared to February and March last year, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to host the backpacker buses for a number of years … one of those contracts actually came to an end due to the road closure [State Highway 2] in the gorge.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 60% of customers being domestic tourists, the company was heavily reliant on highways being open.<\/p>\n

In April, an Auckland group of eight pre-booked with Dive Tatapouri, but due to sporadic road closures the weekend before, the group cancelled its $400 booking.<\/p>\n

\"LocalLocal business owner Chris Savage says unpredictable highway closures have resulted in potential tourists having ‘no confidence’ of being able to get into the region. Photo \/ Zoe Mills<\/p>\n

Mounting uncertainty was making things hard, Savage said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re up one minute, down the next. It\u2019s last minute, you can\u2019t plan your staffing. There\u2019s no confidence to get into the region \u2026 every time there\u2019s rain, it\u2019s \u2018oh, we\u2019ll close it\u2019 [the highways].”<\/p>\n

Doug Jones, chief executive of regional economic development agency Trust Tair\u0101whiti<\/a>, said it was \u201ccritical\u201d for Tair\u0101whiti that state highways were open and safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese disruptions are affecting businesses right across the region,\u201d he said. \u201cWe acknowledge the real pressure ongoing road closures are placing on their ability to operate and plan ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have surveyed local businesses to understand the real impacts of ongoing closures and are using that data to push for support from central government and to prioritise reopening state highways as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tair\u0101whitiTair\u0101whiti tourism businesses are doing it hard as highway closures or the threat of it prevent or discourage people from travelling to the region. Photo \/ Zoe Mills<\/p>\n

Tourism New Zealand<\/a> chief executive Rene de Monchy told the Gisborne Herald: \u201cWe appreciate that road closures can be disruptive for tourism businesses in places like Gisborne.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, we aren\u2019t seeing any long-term impacts in international arrivals or spending because of this. We\u2019ll keep working with the RTO [regional tourism operator] and will continue to include Gisborne in our marketing activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

As closures become more unpredictable, there\u2019s concern for how other businesses reliant on tourism will survive. <\/p>\n

Savage said Dive Tatapouri was financially prepared for more closures, but \u201cothers won\u2019t be\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [district] council and Trust Tair\u0101whiti … those that are meant to be out there advocating, we\u2019re not hearing anything from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan wanted road repairs that endure in the long term, not \u201cband-aid\u201d fixes. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t need to be patched. It needs to be repaired.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need to be heard. I don\u2019t need to be considered. I just need the roads to be open. I need them to be fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Across January and February, sections of the Waioweka Gorge were closed for a total of 24 days. Duncan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2840,16576,3595,8606,1656,6097,71,6098,26755,20384,3594,8482,2454,5342,111,43,139,69,6695,148268,206425,13672,14625,30279,51849,4758,10097,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-399740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-across","9":"tag-bookings","10":"tag-by","11":"tag-closures","12":"tag-company","13":"tag-down","14":"tag-from","15":"tag-hard","16":"tag-highway","17":"tag-highways","18":"tag-hit","19":"tag-huge","20":"tag-industry","21":"tag-losses","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-newzealand","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-regions","27":"tag-sixfigure","28":"tag-sporadic","29":"tag-state","30":"tag-summer","31":"tag-tairwhiti","32":"tag-tairwhitis","33":"tag-taking","34":"tag-tourism","35":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}