Garden festival a blooming success
While 2020 will be remembered for Covid-19 and lockdowns, Virginia Winder reveals that in Taranaki nature and creativity were the big winners
During a tough economic year, the results from the 2020 Taranaki Garden Festival are as bright as the flowers visitors flocked to see.
The just-released BERL report shows the 10-day garden festival generated $4.2 million in GDP for Taranaki – up from $2.6m in 2019. It also attracted $5.6m in new visitor spend in the region ($3.1m in 2019).
There were 79,161 garden visits – up by 25,816 from 2019, and 41 per cent of visitors had never attended the Taranaki Arts Festival Trustrun spring festival before (36 per cent in 2019).
Garden festival manager Tetsu Garnett says the annual spring event surpassed her expectations.
‘‘The results speak for themselves and we saw, when we were going around the mountain, every garden was packed,’’ she says, of the event, which ran from October 30 to November 8.
‘‘There were many people who had never been to Taranaki. I met people who had never even heard of Ha¯ wera.’’
There were also twice as many tour groups compared with previous years and the report reveals 7066 adults attended the garden festival (5510 in 2019) and
5324 visitors were attracted to Taranaki for the event (3500 in
2019).
Garnett says people from all over the nation were amazed by what they found.
‘‘They were really blown away. They couldn’t believe they hadn’t been here before and what it looked like – our New Plymouth foreshore, our galleries, our eateries and our 40 gardens.’’
Taft chief executive Suzanne Porter says it was an exceptional year because Covid-19 restrictions meant people were travelling within New Zealand and looking for something different to do.
For the first time, the garden festival combined with the Taranaki Arts Trail, which encouraged friend and family groups with diverse interests to attend.
‘‘It gave people another indoor option to do something in Taranaki,’’ Porter says.
The report shows the arts trail was by far the most popular event people attended alongside the garden celebration. The festival and arts trail will run together again this year.
Both events, plus the Taranaki Sustainable Backyards Trail, were an ‘‘opportunity to showcase what Taranaki was all about’’.
Visitors were impressed and Porter believed word-of-mouth power would result in repeat and new visitation.
This is backed up by the report, which states: ‘‘Just over half of attendees plan to return in 2021.’’
‘‘The snowball just keeps growing,’’ Porter says. ‘‘By the festival reaching this point, it does put us in a very good place to be recognised nationally and internationally, long term.’’
Jo Collins from Boxwood at Opunake says her garden was five times busier than during the other 10 times she’s opened for the festival.
‘‘The numbers were unprecedented. We were completely overwhelmed by the constant stream of people every single day.’’
Visitors came from the bottom
of the South Island to the top of the North Island and across to the East Coast. Many of those people were in awe of the region’s rich volcanic soil.
Collins says she also had more Taranaki visitors than ever before.
New Plymouth gardener Lee Brumley from The Yews says the festival was amazing and her garden had hosted three times more visitors than usual.
‘‘It was on steroids... so many people from out of town having a wonderful time.
She also encountered family groups of people from all over New Zealand, who met up in Taranaki to visit gardens together.
From an economic viewpoint, the garden festival provided a huge boost for Taranaki.
Accommodation providers around the maunga were full, the hospitality industry was pumping, and people were shopping.
‘‘They [the gardeners] should be proud of what they have done for our region by opening their homes and hearts,’’ Porter says.
‘‘Various businesses have thanked us very much – who’s heard of restaurants being packed out on a Monday night in New Plymouth?’’
At Shining Peak Brewing, the festival boosted quick turn-around tables for those in around 6pm, says front of house manager Luke Anderson.
‘‘We are generally pretty busy without a festival in town, but this definitely added a few earlier dinners. It added a few more numbers and the average age of the clients went up.’’
The report also shows the festival generated 20,743 visitor nights for Taranaki, compared with 13,052 in 2019.
Ducks and Drakes owner Brett Brennen says the festival had a huge impact on the New Plymouth accommodation business.
‘‘It’s the best garden festival we have had in terms of visitor numbers – the motel was full the whole time and the backpackers was 80 per cent full. We were fuller than we ever have been for the garden festival.
‘‘A lot were first timers to New Plymouth. We have had the business for six years and one of the recurring themes is ‘wow, we can’t believe we haven’t come here before…’’
Garden visitors were surveyed, and their feedback was outstanding.
‘‘I think you are doing a wonderful job. All the gardens were outstanding, it was hard to choose which ones to visit in our limited time. We will go again and visit different ones next time. My husband drove and we went with another couple. Thoroughly enjoyed it, even the men,’’ one woman wrote.
Another said: ‘‘We loved the festival. We thought it was exceptionally well organised. The gardens were wonderful, and the gardeners were very warm and generous with their time. We will definitely return another year.’’
Porter says the trust’s overarching principle is that everything it does is for the betterment of Taranaki.
To support that vision, Venture Taranaki (VT), the region’s development agency, stepped in to help.
Chief executive Justine Gilliland says she is thrilled the festival ‘‘hit such highs and delivered real value for the Taranaki region across many economic and event indicators’’.
It’s a credit to the work and vision of the organisers and something to be proud of, she says.
Gilliland says the value of collaboration shone through by bringing together the Taranaki Arts Trail and the garden festival, which diversified the total appeal.
‘‘These results place the event in a position of strength as it looks to this year, and we’re excited to see where the event goes next.’’
This year’s festival will be on from October 29 to November 7.
‘‘The garden festival is in a very good place to be here for many years to come,’’ Porter says.