Reefton strikes gold with tourists
A small West Coast town has bucked the trend with a 40% increase in visitor spending during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In contrast to the national trend, visitor spending in Reefton jumped from $5.1 million, preCovid in 2019, to $7.2m in 2021, according to data from MarketView.
Development West Coast (DWC) chief executive Heath Milne said the historic goldmining town has been a post-Covid success story.
‘‘Reefton is home to some of the best fishing and mountain-biking in the world, but what really makes the town stand out is the civic pride and entrepreneurial spirit of locals who have been working together to bring Reefton back to its former glory.’’
The border closures saw the small town lose around $680,000 in annual spending from international visitors, but an influx of domestic visitors injected an additional $2.8m into the economy last year alone.
Reefton was a boom town during the gold rush days, but fell into decline towards the end of the 20th century.
Locals have been working together over the past few decades to revitalise the town. An early initiative, in 2002, was to reinstate the distinctive character of the town’s main street – through the Reefton Shop Front Project.
DWC provided a commercial loan to a community-led group, which was then able to on lend to shop owners at reasonable rates, enabling business owners to renovate their shop fronts in a heritage style.
‘‘The shop front project was an innovative model for community economic development, a leap of faith at the time for the investment made,’’ said Paul Thomas who was part of the project team, and also co-invested in the Broadway Tearooms & Bakery, originally built in 1874.
This project helped restore several shop fronts, lighting the spark for future developments.
The revitalisation of Reefton stepped up a notch when highprofile entrepreneur John Bougen, the co-founder of Dressmart, moved to the town in 2015.
Now a Buller District councillor, he has been involved in the renovation of around 40 different historic buildings in Reefton, including the original gaol and shops on the main street.