Niue hotel to be managed by NZ company

Transcript

A New Zealand company will soon take over the management of Niue's hotel, the Matavai Resort, in a bid to boost tourism to the island.

The hotel recently underwent a major refurbishment funded by the New Zealand taxpayer, and has been managed by a trust.

The managing director of Scenic Hotel Group, Brendan Taylor, says it will focus on raising the hotel's service standards and there's a possibility for another extension in the long-term.

BRENDAN TAYLOR: The discussions that we have been having with the Premiere of Niue and the board that oversee the hotel is that we are looking at trying to increase the volume of tourism going into Niue, and with the Matavai being really the main flagship of the island it is a matter of picking up the service standards, because the hotel is of a good standard in regards to the actual property, it is just the service standards that need to be picked up more into an international style. So if we can increase the tourism into Niue then it helps also to support the other activities like the restaurants, the growers of produce, the dive teams, the fishing, basically it helps the economy.

MARY BAINES: What plans do you have for the hotel?

BT: At the moment it has just had an extension of 20 rooms put onto it, and it has also had the older rooms refurbished. We are in kind of discussions or long-term plans to see if it is viable to add another 20 rooms to it and conference facilities to the property. But we are actually also quite keen in pulling all the other operators, because there's a lot of small accommodation operators on the island, and if we can basically lift their standards and market them as well, it's more about trying to fill the island with overseas guests as opposed to just the Matavai so there is a kind of a slight extension to the whole game plan of what we want to achieve for Niue.

MB: So Scenic will be working with those smaller operators?

BT: Yes, and there are people who are in the process of actually building quite smart villas on the island at the moment, who we have had the odd discussion with about it, whether we do their marketing for them as well, and try and fill up all the products that are there.

MB: Will it mean an increase in room rates?

BT: Room rates, I suppose an increase in room rates is always something that is controlled off demand so if we can increase demand and the flow, then yes, we can get a better yield. Being mindful that the hotel, and the return to the hotel actually goes back into running the country.

MB: So when is this actually happening, when will it be re-named the Scenic Matavai?

BT: 1st of December we go in there. It will be rebranded. We go in their with our management team and the first thing I suppose will be putting our systems in there, making sure that the reservation system is live to the hotel so that guests who are booking out of New Zealand can secure their air flights at the same time as they know they've got accommodation. And then there will be a fair bit of training that goes into the department. Basically our main role is to help the economy in Niue and get it to be more supportive, because it is quite heavily funded out of New Zealand. So the more we can get it standing on its own two feet, the better.