We love it here

Marlborough”.

When Zoe Gray our Membership and Events Manager from the Chamber asked a range of people why they chose to live in Marlborough, the most frequent reply was because “WE LOVE IT HERE!”.

So when Marlborough District Council along with the Chamber and MSD started to come up with an Attraction Campaign to encourage people to move for work in Marlborough, it was the clear front runner as the strap line. With visitors from around

Short commutes to the office of five or ten minutes, one of the sunniest towns in NZ, brilliant wineries, cafes and restaurants, the amazing outdoors, ranging from the Marlborough Sounds, ski fields, mountain bike tracks and incredible national parks right on the doorstep, great schools and an iconic events calendar, it’s a pretty incredible place to live and work.

This regional positivity is against a backdrop of national gloom and concern for the NZ economy, driven by media coverage and the

The latest comments from Infometrics “The prospects for NZ’s economy are increasingly dark.” It seems that a likely recession has rarely been as widely agreed on by forecasters or as well-signalled by policymakers and partial economic indicators.

It’s always nerve wracking to go against the prevailing views, especially those of “experts”, but on this occasion I think it’s justified. When we look at the size of the grape harvest, it’s only one driver of our regional economy, but it’s a big one. With the record grape harvest in 2022 and another potentially solid looking harvest in prospect this year, the regional economy should be in decent shape.

Not because it just helps a few big companies, but because that money flows down into the local economy as wineries and growers alike invest and develop their businesses using local contractors and companies.

Talking to our members, the prevailing view seems to be one of positivity for 2023, accepting that supply chain issues, inflation and problems recruiting staff make business challenging at the moment, still overall they expect 2023 to be a better year than the last one and a good proportion are looking to expand.

That positivity is reflected in the recent poll from Booking. com (from a pool of over 240 million customer reviews) highlighted Marlborough as the most welcoming place in the southern hemisphere and sixth in the worlds most welcoming regions.

As a region we have a tendency to understate how good the region is, maybe the time has come to start shouting from the roof tops, “We Love it here.”