Tourism providers in Hawke's Bay are baffled by a proposal to cut baseline funding in the currently booming local tourism industry.
The Mangarara Eco Lodge is just one of the places to receive a helping hand from the local tourism body.
"We are primarily farmers so it's been a whole bunch of learning and Hawke's Bay Tourism has been fantastic and holding our hand and helping us through that," said Greg Hart, Mangarara Eco Lodge owner.
Now, that support is in jeopardy as millions of dollars of the region's baseline tourism funding is set to be cut by the regional council, which is instead channelling the money into environmental projects.
Rex Graham of Hawke's Bay Regional Council says the council believes it has already "given tourism a good leg up".
"They do believe they should be reducing the funding over a period of time and they can go back to the industry," Mr Graham said.
Smaller regions rely on events like Art Deco Week and Horse of the Year, which account for eight per cent of the region's economy, to help create thousands of jobs and generate revenue.
The tourism industry says they aren't aware of any other councils making such large cuts to tourism funding.
However, the council says the exponential growth of the tourism industry would need to be reflected in an increase in rates.
"If we left the tourism at that level, we would have to raise the rates by another 1.6 per cent," Mr Graham said.
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