Tourism flags are popping up in Ashburton with a new catchphrase for the district: 'Ready, breathe, explore'.

But council is telling residents the new flags, spotted around Ashburton's CBD in recent weeks, are not a new slogan for the region.

Council compliance and development group manager Jane Donaldson said it formed part of a "fresh campaign" to encourage visitors to Mid Canterbury over summer, and is not a new slogan.

“When the council opted to discard the old slogan there was no intention to replace it.

“Instead, we talked about stories and campaigns, which is what we are now delivering.”

The council discarded the district slogan ‘Whatever it takes’ in September 2021 and did not adopt a new one.

There is no intention at this stage to introduce a new one.

New promotional flags placed along street lights in Ashburton’s West Street / State Highway 1 raised questions among residents about whether it was a new town slogan.

Donaldson said the theme plays on the traditional 'ready, set, go' concept.

“The summer campaign strategically highlights three pivotal facets of our district: indulgence, action, and exploration.”

The council is also implementing geo-targeted advertising on various digital platforms.

It is the council’s first tourism campaign since taking over district's promotion last year and it is being orchestrated by new district promotions advisor Shelley Donnelly.

Council’s efforts initially missed the mark, with economic development manager Simon Worthington telling councillors at the end of last year that a survey received a disappointing response, and a trade-ready training programme at the Lake House had a low turnout.

The survey was conducted within the first few weeks of Donnelly’s appointment “to benchmark how engaged local operators were at the time”, Donaldson said.

“The training workshop was in response to tourism providers reporting that they wanted more support for interacting with trade buyers, and we found that while a successful workshop took place in Methven, the Ashburton workshop was not as well attended.”

Donnelly has since been meeting personally with operators and Donaldson is confident that engagement has already improved.

“Improving engagement is not a quick fix though, and we expect it to take some time to build momentum.”

Helping with the momentum is the resurrection of the Experience Mid Canterbury brand.

“The entity has been formally disestablished but Experience Mid Canterbury as a brand name remains.

“With the council bringing district promotion in-house, it made sense to leverage an existing brand with years of previous investment and recognition.”

Welcome signs

There won’t be a new district slogan but new welcome signs are being proposed to be included in the long-term plan.

Councillors were presented with options for welcoming signs for Ashburton in September 2022, preferring the idea of a big "A" for Ashburton, but with no budget allocated to the project it was left to fall to the long-term plan process.

The three signs totalling $150,000, with a design still to be finalised, were proposed for 2025-26 but the councillors pushed it back to 2027-28 (year four of the LTP).

District promotion

The district promotion budget is proposed to increase by $50,000 in the long-term plan, from $197,000 in 2023/24 to $247,000 in 2024/25.

Previously, the budget had been around $400,000 but was cut in 2020 when the Covid pandemic closed international borders.

Councillor Richard Wilson said he had a problem with funding district promotion and that tourism operators should be stepping up "and not rely on the rest of the community to fund it".

He was told that the district’s biggest tourist operator, Mt Hutt Ski Area, spends an estimated $2.4m on marketing annually.

By Jonathan Leask