A marketing opportunity on our own back doorstep

What’s good for the goose has always been good for the gander and we should always remember that.

First-term councillor Tony Todd’s comments earlier this week about Ashburton being much more than just a pit-stop town that’s only good for a stretch of the legs and grabbing something to eat and little else hits the right notes.

It’s been long felt that the main town in our district is a little bit of an after-thought when it comes to suitable places to stop along people’s travels and anything we can do to change that should be welcomed and encouraged.

What I would say however, that what’s a little off the mark is to look at Ashburton and Methven as rivals in the tourism market. We are one district and one district only.

But before we start dipping into the pockets and spending up large on the tourism advertising and promotions of Ashburton externally, what about looking a little closer to home to see if that can get the wheels in motion.

In this day and age people want real life experiences from like-minded people, not just pictures on a billboard or a targeted marketing campaign splashed across every major airport in the country.

Russell Ellis followed up Tony Todd’s comments with an equally salient point about Methven being Mid Canterbury’s little crown jewel when it comes to tourism, so why not utilise that already existing resource much better.

Perhaps I’m not looking in the right places, but I’ve lived in Methven for a while now and rarely, if at all, have I seen any promotional material or marketing of such to those who choose to eat, sleep and play under the mountain to entice them to jump in the car and drive the 20 minutes to Ashburton.

There’s no piece of paper hanging on my wall that says I’m a master at marketing or tourism, but surely using an already existing vibrant potential customer base who have the power to market to the world through the use of social media these days is a no-brainer.

They flock to the district for the skifield each year and spend days and dollars within the Methven township. What if that money was, in part, transferred to the wider district. Mt Hutt isn’t open every day of the winter. There are opportunities to get out and explore for those who are staying in the township.

A visit to the Plains Museum, the Art Gallery or even just a stop in at a local café or restaurant after a day of exploring – the options are endless.

We do need to market our region better because we rely too much on riding in on the coat tails of Mt Hutt and now the Opuke Thermal Pools and Spa when there’s a whole breadth of other travellers out there who could be keen to step inside our backdoor and have a look around.

But use what we’ve got better first. It’s there, it’s ours and if we don’t use it, someone else nearby quickly will.