Provincial Growth Fund - Te Aroha Tourism Precinct
Te Aroha has always been a spa town.
Mana whenua were aware of the hot springs and making use of the waters for hundreds of years before European arrival. Te Aroha had its heyday in the late 1800’s as the premiere spa destination in New Zealand, attracting more visitors than Rotorua.
In 2018 Matamata Piako District Council was awarded a grant from the Provincial Growth Fund to study the potential for investment in making Te Aroha a health and wellness hub – to make the town boom as a premium spa destination once more.
Provincial Growth Fund
This is a Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funded project. It aims to accelerate regional development, increase regional productivity, and contribute to more, better-paying jobs.
We believe this project should help achieve the PGF's objectives of:
- Creating jobs, leading to sustainable economic growth
- Increasing social inclusion and participation
- Enabling Māori to realise aspirations in all aspects of the economy
- Encouraging environmental sustainability and helping New Zealand meet climate change commitments alongside productive use of land, water and other resources
- Improving resilience, particularly of critical infrastructure, and by diversifying our economy
Read about Te Aroha's spa history
The decision
Following the Feasibility study and business case we sent an application to be reviewed by the Provincial Development Unit. In September 2020, we were formally notified recently that our Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) application for $16m to transform the Domain into a Tourism Precinct, will not be progressed. The application was not turned down but due to a high number of applications, the funds were allocated before it could be presented to the ministers.
We are now looking at options into how we can progress without the PGF and working towards building this into our Long-Term Plan 2021-31 (our ten-year plan) which we will be engaging with the community on early in 2021.
