A ‘significant setback' for Coromandel

The Coromandel region suffered a significant economic setback in the final months of the 2019/20 financial year with overall visitor spend down 7.5 per cent on last year.

Destination Coromandel, the regional tourism operator, reported this was mostly due to a $50 million drop in spend in March and April.

While Covid-19 restrictions only arrived in the last quarter of the financial year ending June 30, the impact has dominated all other results.

The $459m total spend for 2019/20 took the region back two years, however, tourism was already slowing and Destination Coromandel had been anticipating a smaller increase as it suggested in its previous annual report.

Destination Coromandel says it endeavoured to build on the success of the previous domestic marketing campaigns that addressed seasonality and regional spread.

An increase spend of $5m from domestic travellers for the target period made for an impressive start to the 2019/20 Financial Year.

The Winter Wellness campaign aimed to challenge perceptions of The Coromandel solely being a summer beach destination. Local food, art and retail therapy helped deliver on the #goodforyoursoul proposition.

“The Hauraki Rail Trail Take it Easy campaign was arguably the best campaign that the regional tourism organisation has produced. An increase of 11 per cent in web traffic and 89 per cent in page views with almost 3000 product referrals providing an impressive conversion rate for engaged tourism businesses.”

International activity was also a tale of two halves with 67 agents hosted from key markets in the first six months. In the second six months, major travel trade events such as explore and TRENZ were cancelled.

Likewise, the two i-sites Destination Coromandel manages on behalf of Thames-coromandel District Council felt the dramatic change Covid-19 brought.

Destination Coromandel chairman John Sandford said the marketing and sales team have a hard time reflecting on their work when there’s so much work ahead.

“The team are working on the first summer campaign we’ve ever released and they are also taking on additional responsibility afforded through the Strategic Tourism Asset Protection Programme fund.

“The next 12 months will be a very challenging time, but there’s no shortage of opportunity to progress broader goals beyond the economic impacts of tourism,” Sandford said.

The RTO reported being “pleasantly surprised” by the level of postlockdown visitation that included a record July with $30m spent compared with $23m a year earlier.

The organisation says this provided some confidence for the summer when the region is inviting travellers to the place “Where Kiwis Holiday”.