A gondola will be available at Mount Ruapehu from next year thanks to a $10 million government grant helping the project get off the ground.
Whakapapa ski field general manager Jono Dean says the gondola will be "a fantastic piece of infrastructure for tourism in our region".
"The gondola itself is a $25 million project and covers a distance of 1.8km in terms of its length," Mr Dean said.
The gondola is expected to move 2500 passengers per hour when it begins running around the middle of next year.
By 2025, it's expected to attract 500,000 people to the region, and local businesses are keen to capitalise on the influx of visitors long after the snow melts.
Ohakune resident Dave Scott says the installation of the gondola should help generate money into the local community.
"They should be able to go through now and stay open 12 months of the year and actually earn some money - which is good for the economy as it goes around - because, as they say, $1 on the mountain means $7 turned around down here," Mr Scott said.
Mountain Kebabs' Josh says "any kind of extra numbers that do come through" is a good thing but says he has mixed feelings about the new regional project.
"There's been some contention and concern about the way waste is being dealt with already. At the moment, there's just the dump - that's it. It's pretty rudimentary, like there's no soft plastic recycling or anything," he said.
Whakapapa says it's environmentally-friendly and has a stringent waste management practice.
However, the Ruapehu District Council says it's looking at alternative ways to improve how it manages waste.
Meanwhile, it's hoped any investment on Mount Ruapehu will have a trickle-down effect to places like Raetihi, which fell into a state of depression in the 1970s.
SHARE ME