Small gains for South Island tourism
End of year tourism spend stats show North Island fared less well
Good news for several regions across the country that experienced a slight increase in tourism spending during the Christmas holiday period but disappointment for many North Island, destinations’ that saw business dip.
This is the news according to figures released by Wellington-based Dotlovesdata.com based on Eftpos transactions for the period December 2021 to January 2022.
The research, based on 2.8 million transactions, shows the Buller region saw a more than 50 percent increase in visitor spend.
Waikato also enjoyed a strong summer with visitor spending increasing by 20 percent, Raglan and Hamilton accounting for 48 percent and 38 percent of spend, respectively.
Kaikōura saw an 18 percent rise in spend.
And while the South Island experienced visitation spikes, attributable to the South Island’s mostly COVID-free status, not so the North Island which was particularly hard-hit by the red traffic light setting only relaxed just before Christmas.
As a result, many usually highly popular North Island summertime destinations, including Auckland, the Far North, Gisborne, Ōpōtiki, Whakatāne, Wairoa and Ruapehu, all experienced the biggest declines in visitor spend.
Visitor spending in Auckland, which recorded the highest number of COVID infections, was 26 percent lower than in the same period in 2020-21, Wairoa recorded a 33 percent drop in spend while Ōpōtiki and Gisborne saw declines of 26 and 22 percent, respectively.
According to Dotlovesdata.com analysts, the overall visitor spending reflected the fact that many Kiwis stayed close to home with destinations close to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch faring best.
Mike Parker-Brown is a UK-trained and qualified journalist and an award-winning travel communicator with more than 30 years experience.
Since 2002, Mike has worked as a freelance writer and PR consultant providing his services to major organisations in Australia and internationally in the tourism, aviation, hospitality, recruitment and export marketing sectors.
