Brewery head deplores ‘loss of privilege’

Press, 7 May 1980, Page 3

Brewery head deplores ‘loss of privilege’

PA Wellington While the last 10 years has brought an SO per cent increase in the number of drinking places, the number of small hotels has declined steeply, says the managing director of Lion Breweries, Ltd, (Mr J. Macfarlane). In an address to the Wellington Lions Club yesterday, Mr Macfarlane said that the brewers once owned their own hotels, thus obtaining exclusive rights to sell beer. In return, brewers provided guest accommodation. Over the last 10 years the brewers’ “exclusive privilege” had been eroded by the imposition of stringent control on the brewers’ product, he said. Added to this had been the growth in the number of restaurants licensed to sell liquor; bring-your-own restaurants; taverns with no obligation to provide accommodation: and ancillary 7 licences. Mr Macfarlane said that last year the number of ancillary licences granted exceeded the total number of hotels and taverns in New Zealand. “When the brewing and hotel industries lost their exclusive rights, they also became absolved of their obligations to provide accommodation; and with the exhausting price controls also lost the capacity to fund large hotels from their own resources,” he said. This loss of “exclusive privilege” and the lack of investors’ interest in the building of hotels had led to the severe lack of hotel accommodation in New Zealand’s main centres, Mr Macfarlane said. * ■ With the cost of building hotels running at $75,000 a bedroom, investors were unlikely' attracted when they would receive.. a poor return on their money i ? Mr Macfarlane said that in' spite of- a “monotonous

series of press statements” 1 that New Zealand was a tourist goldmine, investors could find more attractive investments with greater returns. A multi-storey international hotel built at a cost of $75,000 a bedroom would provide accommodation suitable for the sophisticated and experienced traveller. “Industry committees and Government advisers seem all agreed on the shortage of beds and the urgent need for new ones. Yet little of real consequence has been done Over the last five years to provide any incentive,” Mr Macfarlane said. The Government could offer inducements to hotel building, either by rent and beneficial taxation incentives or bj r funding on attractive terms. Many would look again at running hotels, if the foreign exchange obtained attracted the export performance tax incentive available to tour firms. Another alternative for the Government would be to commission and build hotel structures itself, and have them run by experienced management. Mr Macfarlane said the possibilities to earn overseas funds from ’ tourism were boundless, but until hotel building became commercially attractive New Zealand would not reap the full benefit of its tourism trade.