Interest in the Southland region's tourism industry, including from Australian buyers, is expected to be on the rise after a successful Meetings trade show in Auckland.
The Hawthorndale Care Village Charitable Trust reached more than 90 per cent of its fundraising goal, thanks to a $495,000 grant from the Invercargill Licencing Trust.
Oamaru’s commercial accommodation providers could be in trouble if something is not done to counter the effect Airbnbs are having on the industry.
Poshtel owner Phillip McNicholl is calling on the Waitaki District Council to take “decisive and bold” action before there are no commercial operators left in Oamaru.
There are about 135 Airbnb properties running in Oamaru, but before Covid-19 there had been more than 300.
“Each one of those has got two or three bedrooms. That’s equivalent of, you know, 20 Poshtels being built in that period of three years,” Mr McNicholl said.
“It’s quite a disproportionate number for the size of the town.”