Tourism boost for regions
Enticing visitors with more activities throughout the Wellington region led to big gains in tourism spending over the last year.
Regional tourism estimates produced by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for the year to June 2018 revealed significant spending growth by both international and domestic tourists.
While Wellington City extracted $90 million more from tourists than the previous year, some of the smaller districts enjoyed much bigger percentage gains.
Spending by international visitors in
Upper Hutt was up a whopping 26.5 per cent on the previous year and Carterton experienced a 22 per cent hike in domestic tourism spending.
Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy said it appeared regional efforts to persuade visitors to stay longer in the Wellington region was having a flow-on effect for every district.
‘‘There’s more being done regionally down so I think everyone’s getting a bigger slice of the action. People might not be coming to Upper Hutt as a destination but they’ll spend some time here because they’ve been in Wellington city,’’ he said.
Wreda destination development and marketing general manager David Perks put the result down to an increasing amount of quality activities and attractions across the region.
‘‘The Wellington region offers a plethora of options for both visitors and locals alike. From our rich culture and heritage in the city, out to some of New Zealand’s top food and wine destinations, the region is home to some of the best New Zealand has to offer,’’ he said.
Throughout the Wairarapa, international spending rose 8.8 per cent and domestic spending 11.7 per cent for the year ending June 2018.
Destination Wairarapa general manager David Hancock said the region reached a record $186m in visitor spending, reflected by the strong interest in Wairarapa’s quality cafe, restaurant and tourism offerings.
‘‘We’re excited by the number of international as well as domestic visitors flocking to the Wairarapa – we have a number of gems to share across our five towns, from art galleries and antiques, to artisan products.’’
Tills were ringing strongly in the Hutt Valley, with international visitors spending $8.8m more in Lower Hutt and $3.6m in Upper Hutt. In Wellington City, international spending jumped 6 per cent to $631m.