Visitors boost inner city

Overseas and Kiwi visitors to Christchurch are giving a welcome boost to central-city businesses hit hard by the pandemic.

But business owners say they would also like to see more office workers back in town.

Travellers from visa-waiver countries have been allowed into New Zealand since May, and the borders fully reopen at the end of this month.

In April, convention centre Te Pae reopened, with more than 100 events scheduled for the year.

Christchurch Central City Business Association chairperson Annabel Turley said there was a definite increase in central-city trade, especially since the opening of Te Pae.

‘‘That just highlights how important the anchor projects are for the central city,’’ she said.

However, it was not all good news. Winter had always been a hard time for business in the central city, ‘‘with or without Covid’’, she said.

She said many people appeared to still be working from home on Fridays as there was a noticeable decrease in foot traffic compared with the rest of the week.

Turley said despite the resumption of international travel, a move to the green traffic light setting was undoubtedly necessary.

‘‘We need to remove those Covid restrictions – like we’ve seen overseas – for things to move forward.’’

Mia Zhao, a director at Double Dribble Group, which owns 10 hospitality businesses in central-city locations including Little High and Riverside, has also seen an increase in foot traffic.

She said it was difficult to know whether the busier streets were due to events in the city or the border reopening to international visitors, but suspected it was a combination of both.

Zhao said people working from home was likely still a factor affecting hospitality businesses.

‘‘Lunchtime [business] has not really

picked up by the offices. There are probably some people still working from home, but less than before.’’

Bruce Garrett, managing director of The George Hotel on Park Terrace, said its bookings were looking strong.

International visitors had accounted for 20% of guests in the first half of this year, and he expected that to swell to half by the end of the year.

‘‘One thing that’s certainly helping is the opening of Te Pae. We’ve certainly noticed quite a significant number of guests staying with us who are attending events there,’’ he said.

‘‘Definitely the corporate base keeps things ticking along, but the leisure market helps in the weekends.’’

Many of their overseas visitors had come to New Zealand to reunite with family, he said.

The latest Google movements data, tracked using smartphone locations, shows a slight increase of people visiting retail and recreation premises in Canterbury in the six weeks to June 30.

It also shows an increase of people at supermarkets and pharmacies (15%), workplaces (11%) and residential premises (6%), but a decrease in public transport (minus 19%) and parks (minus 17%).

Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce chief executive Leeann Watson said retailers had reported a definite increase in business over the past few weeks, and they expect this trend to continue.

‘‘We are hoping to see business return to those pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year,’’ said Watson.

She said Christchurch Airport expecting up to 20,000 passengers a day during the upcoming school holidays was ‘‘great news’’, given Christchurch was a gateway to the rest of the South Island.

‘‘With the borders now open and the skifields open, we can certainly see an increase in activity in the CBD, which is predominantly due to domestic tourism.

‘‘But of course we are also seeing those tourists start to come from Australia, which will certainly contribute to that as well.’’

Watson said while the overall picture was positive, people working from home and Covid contacts having to isolate for seven days were affecting businesses.