Prime Minister John Key has announced a cash injection to aid a marketing campaign to bring tourists to Christchurch.
John Key, who is also Tourism Minister, made the announcement at the official re-opening of the Ibis Hotel, first central city hotel to do so after the Canterbury quakes, on Thursday morning.
The Government is contributing $500,000 towards the second year of the Canterbury Tourism Partnership.
The money will be matched by Christchurch City Council and Christchurch airport, bringing the total to $1.5 million.
The money comes from a $3 million government fund set aside for this purpose.
Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism chief executive Tim Hunter says the number of Australian visitors has fallen by 40% and the funding will be used to lure them back.
"We want to re-image the city because many Australians think it's horribly broken - that's what they've seen in television and other media - and show them what it's like today. So we've built a thing called the Discovery Stream, so anyone using Twitter or Instagram can upload images to it."
