Motel del la Mer director Tanja Cowan says tourists are the life-blood of many businesses. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Hawke's Bay hospitality businesses are pinning their hopes on the reopening of the state highway network to return trade to some semblance of normality after Cyclone Gabrielle.
About 80 percent of tourism businesses are back up and running, but cancellations are still pouring in and visitors have all but disappeared from the streets of Hastings and Napier.
Marine Parade's family-owned Motel del la Mer director Tanja Cowan said the procession of Defence Force unimogs and emergency services vehicles had gone but so had the tourists - the lifeblood of so many businesses along the strip.
"At the moment all of our bookings until the end of March had cancelled apart from our corporate travellers who are slowly coming back as of this week, but we've had cancellations up until the end of July with our internationals and at this stage with no new ones coming in."
There was little clarity on what the government's $25 million package for business in the cyclone affected areas meant for those not directly affected by the flooding, Cowan said.
"I mean obviously financially I'm just waiting to see what the government brings out as far as that's concerned.
"Our expenses are still the same as they were two weeks' ago, but we've dropped from 97 percent occupancy to about 20 percent."
Cowan said she felt for the many businesses and individuals who had been affected much worse than her.
"But now it's starting to affect people in a different way which is the hard part, so just cancellations across the board and moving forward there's big events planned for Hawke's Bay and stuff and we are hoping they can continue on and people will realise that Napier is still alive wants to be alive and kicking."
Reopening the Napier-Taupō Highway was vital, she said.
"Hopefully that state highway opens when they say, which is early April, and if that happens there is no reason Napier can't come back to what it was three weeks' ago."
Napier City Bike Hire and Tours owner Jan Pavlicek had not hired a single bike out when RNZ called in.
"Zero, zero and Monday morning, you know, the week is not as busy as the weekends but we'd still have a bunch of bikes out, so we'd be fairly busy, but like I said it's zero now and last week obviously nothing."
Napier City Bike Hire and Tours owner Jan Pavlicek says bike hires have been very slow since the cyclone. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
The immediate future looked no better.
"We'll see how it picks up, but in terms of forward bookings and cancellations I'm not getting any bookings or minimal enquiries it's more about cancelling orders for March and April as well.
"A lot of people don't know the details and it feels like it's just completely wiped out, the whole of the Hawke's Bay."
Pavlicek said his heart went out to those more directly affected and he felt lucky that his business was on high ground.
He was also looking for government help.
"It's going to be really hard obviously we've had a lot of cancellations, a lot of refunds and there was a huge blow into our cash flow and it's going to be tough.
"So, we'll see maybe the government will help us out a little bit otherwise it's going to be tough to see how we survive the next few weeks until people realise you can still come here."
He also had his eyes on the roading network.
"Most tourists that come in they are driving Rotorua, Taupō and come here and continue down to Wellington or vice versa.
"That's not going to be happening for a long time because the Taupō road at the moment Waka Kotahi is estimating four or five weeks at least until they reopen and then you can probably imagine there's going to be 30kmh zones half the way."
Tennyson's Cafe and Bistro duty manager Mohitha Vishwanath had also noticed a drop in trade.
"It is very difficult because before the floods we had ties with a couple of motels across the street and they used to come here for breakfast using vouchers and stuff like that.
"We have a lot of cruise ship tourists coming into the town and that was really good for the business but with the floods and after the floods there's not tourists of course. Fair enough they don't want to come. I don't blame them."
Tennyson's Cafe and Bistro duty manager Mohitha Vishwanath hopes the return of cruise ships would give the city a boost. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Vishwanath was hoping the return of cruise ships would give the city a boost.
Hawke's Bay Tourism chief executive Hamish Saxton said re-establishing transport links was key.
"More than 50 percent of the visitors to Hawke's Bay come in from the north. That includes the road from Gisborne down to Hawke's Bay and also State Highway 5 that really important link that comes in from Taupō through to Hawke's Bay as well."
As was government support, he said.
"Wage subsidies and business support are going to be of such vital importance to just keep these businesses going until we've got a good recovery and return of visitors to the region once more."
Meanwhile, Vishwanath said the bottom line would look after itself.
"At this stage just be safe. I can't say much about the business because I just want everybody to be safe and that's one way to get things back to normal and then things will come together."
Waka Kotahi was still unable to give a definitive timeline for when State Highway 5 to Taupō or State Highway 2 to Wairoa would reopen to the public along.
