Cashing in on summer tourist invasion
‘‘We have been so busy. A few nights we closed early because we ran out of chips and fresh fish.’’
Tourism is shaping up to provide a bumper economic summer season for businesses operating out of Matamata.
A snapshot of activity from Matamata’s i-SITE and a few businesses around the town showed it had been a phenomenally busy couple of weeks welcoming visitors from all over the world.
The drawcard remains the Hobbiton movie set, where some visitors had been turned away because of limited capacity.
Matamata i-SITE manager Sue Whiting expects high volumes of visitors to continue to mid-April.
And while that was good news for the town, she said the i-SITE had been affected by the increase in online bookings by visitors.
It limited the choices the i-SITE had to book for visitors to its shop in the middle of town.
‘‘A huge number of tourists are using technology to book adventures and accommodation ahead of visiting the region to ensure they don’t miss out. This is having a huge impact on our business,’’ said Whiting.
‘‘The reality is, online bookings will impact our business, reducing income and possibly leading to the inability to fund our planned projects going forward.’’
Many Matamata businesses have benefited from people visiting the Hobbiton movie set. Tourists have stopped in town to shop and enjoy cafes.
Broadway Burger Bar owner Maria Hamilton said Matamata was definitely busier over Christmas and New Year.
‘‘We have been so busy. A few nights we closed early because we ran out of chips and fresh fish.’’
Hamilton said the chatter among other eateries was that town was particularly chaotic.
‘‘The roads have been busy, you couldn’t get a park up town.’’
She couldn’t attribute the rise in spending to anything in particular but said the fine weather could be a driver.
Deborah Nowell, owner/operator of Forget Me Not Florist on Arawa Street agreed.
There was a steady flow before Christmas leading into the New Year.
Holidaymakers have also struggled to find beds with motel and backpacker accommodation at a premium.
O’Riellys Motel Manager Nappe Tan is checking with other moteliers daily to see who has vacancies.
‘‘There has been limited room since the beginning of December,’’ she said.
Visitor numbers to Hobbiton are ahead of last year’s figures and general manager Russell Alexander is hopeful it continues.
‘‘It’s still early in the season for us having just starting our summer on Boxing Day which will go through to Easter, but it’s a great start,’’ he said.
Alexander said Hobbiton has limited capacity with the number of tourists it can process and admitted some tourists have had to be turned away.
Fine weather forecast for Matamata is set to continue and will attract visitors to events, including the Rotary Matamata Concert by the Lake in February.
There are also three major reunions in March expected to put pressure on accommodation in the first quarter.