Kaikōura tourism say lack of road info hurting business

Kaikōura tourist operators are demanding answers about the main road south, accusing authorities of leaving them in the dark.

The Transport Minister Simon Bridges had said State Highway One south of Kaikōura would reopen next week.

But operators say nothing appears to be happening, and the lack of information is costing them bookings and lost custom.

"There seems to be a lack of activity on trying to clear those slips to the south. Very little machinery is working there. I had a look this morning (at the major slip). Seems to be one excavator working. We need to know what's going on," Dennis Buurman, Encounter Kaikōura co-owner said.

"We need to know why it's only going to be one lane. What are the issues around that. If we can understand that and they can tell us the reasons then we can be satisfied with that. But at the moment it's all just guesswork."

Mr Buurman said given the number of machines sitting idle in Kaikōura the road could have been open sooner.

He said travel agents were demanding to know what was going on, and some overseas visitors had cancelled due to the uncertainty.

Tourism is estimated to make up 12 percent of Kaikōura's economy, but 27 percent of employment in the district relied on tourism.

Mr Buurman's wife Lynette is co-owner of Encounter Kaikōura and is the town's tourism convenor.

Mrs Buurman said the quake had been devastating after years of struggle in the wake of the Christchurch quakes.

"There was great excitement and anticipation that it was going to be a good season."

"People had taken on lots of staff, we'd invested in infrastructure, a new boat, we were going ahead with confidence. So this is just the worst possible thing that could happen."

"And we are now facing a year or two before we can really say we're through this," Mrs Buurman said.

Infometrics' Gareth Kiernan said the impact on tourism was expected to be more serious and longer-lasting than for other sectors.

"You don't have the ability to relocate geographically. The tourist sector is there because that's where the whales and tourism related stuff is. You can't just say to the whales 'can we just move down the coast 100km because we can't launch the boats from here'."

Tourism touches a number of other sectors.

The owner of the Mitre 10 hardware store and retail convenor, Bruce Hill, said retailers would feel the pinch too, and the sooner the roads south to Christchurch and Hanmer were open regularly the better.

"The shops in the main street ... tourism was a huge part of their turnover and income, so it's massive."

Agriculture and seafood make up another 23 percent of the economy, and 17 percent of employment.

Fishing is in limbo as the industry waits for a report by the engineering consulting firm Tomkin and Taylor into dredging the harbour, which has been affected by the lifting of the seabed.

The future is brighter for dairy though, with tankers resuming milk pickups from the 22-odd farms.

But access is still fragile on the inland road, and dairy farmer Simon Mackle said any delays or road blocks may upset next year's plans.

"The clock's ticking for next season. We all need to get fertiliser on now to grow grass. Sheep and beef farmers are going to have to get their stock out (of the district) before it gets dry. Five days of the Nor'west they'll have too much stock. It's really something that's gotta be worked out."

While business remained resolute, most accept summer will be disappointing at best, and a write-off at worst.

The government has already signalled its willingness to extend its assistance package, which business leaders welcome, saying that is essential to stop businesses going under and workers looking for work elsewhere.

While Kaikōura has been hit hard, economists were picking the effect on the national economy to be muted.

The Kaikōura and Hurunui districts account for less than 1 percent of total tourist spending.

The Reserve Bank governor, Graeme Wheeler, said the quakes had not changed the bank's forecasts that the economy was growing at an annual rate of 3.5 percent.

Mr Wheeler said while the quakes would initially lead to a downturn in activity in Kaikōura, it would be offset by extra spending on repairs and recovery.

He said the total cost of the quakes would be between $3 billion to $8bn dollars, made up of $2bn to $3bn in government infrastructure repair work, and an early estimate of between $1bn to $5bn in insurance costs.