Quotes from today’s Taupo Times confirm the continued stupidity of the Toepaw Council trying to mislead the readers. The feature article is headed “Steady growth for Taupo district”.

Various statistics are produced to show what a wonderful job the Council are doing – i..e “Turangi has experienced a real boost with cardholder spending increasing by 4.7% when compared to the same quarter last year” Hawker-Green said (Enterprise Great Lake Taupo general manager). Tourism expenditure has seen growth of 6.3%, above the national average of 3.3%.

This was qualified with the only sensible comment from Destination Great Lake Taupo general manager, Jane Wison, who advised on the 3% drop in Taupo guest nights – “However it is important to note that these numbers do not include private accommodation options such as Airbnb.” So what is the use of any tourism statistics when the largest suppliers – Airbnb and other B&B’s – are excluded. In Turangi they add up to over 100 rooms and in Taupo over 900 – more than the total motel rooms.

So all their tourism statistical data is meaningless.

But next is the real clanger. To show how well Taupo tourism industry (?) is achieving, they quote the increase in value of non-residential consents up by 69.4% compared to 7.6% nationally. Wow! Taupo District Council consents and regulatory manager, (Where do they dream up these job titles?) Scott Davenport said this increase was driven by a number of significant developments. He said “The big influencer in this quarter is the new 120 bed unit at Tongariro Prison”. No wonder the Turangi tourist accommodation industry is seen to be doing so well. TRM has failed to match the occupancy rates of Tongariro Prison. The other larger prison in the same complex at Rangipo was closed recently. So much for growth in Toepaw…

Seriously, he should find a real job.