Phone data shows visitor influx to coastal Bay of Plenty during school holidays

The region saw the second-highest increase in daily domestic visitors in New Zealand. Photo / File

Coastal Bay of Plenty proved popular during the winter school holidays, according to statistics released by Data Ventures.

The region saw the second-highest increase, an average of 7790, in daily domestic visitors in New Zealand when comparing the 2020 winter school holidays to the 2019 winter school holidays.

Coastal Bay of Plenty welcomed an average of 37,450 Kiwi travellers each day during the 2020 winter school holidays, an average annual increase of 26 per cent.

The data also recorded coastal Bay of Plenty hosting the fourth highest number of daily
domestic visitors in the country during the same period.

The number of domestic visitors flocking to the area peaked during the second weekend of the 2020 winter school holidays. The was a daily average of 50,000 visitors during the weekend of July 11-12.

Tourism Bay of Plenty chief executive Kristin Dunne said the data compared domestic visitor numbers before and after Covid-19 and showed the results of months of hard work from the region's tourism industry and the Tourism Bay of Plenty promotions
team.

"I'm proud that the coastal Bay of Plenty is welcoming back so many Kiwi visitors. The region's tourism industry and my team have been working hard to make this happen and we're delighted with the results," she said.

Data Ventures, the commercial arm of Statistics NZ, uses information from Spark and Vodafone to determine hourly visitor numbers in a location at a given time.

Credit card spend data provided by MarketView confirmed the call to experience coastal Bay of Plenty was heard. A six percent increase in spending occurred over the winter school holidays compared to the same week in 2019.

Spending on hospitality and accommodation showed a significant spike during the 2020 winter school holidays. During the first week of the school holidays, hospitality and accommodation spending increased 13 per cent when compared to the 2019 winter school holidays.

The second week of the break saw a seven per cent increase.

Air New Zealand added a number of extra services to and from Tauranga during the school holidays and added services over August and September on its Christchurch-Tauranga and Wellington-Tauranga routes.

Air New Zealand head of tourism and regional affairs Reuben Levermore said the airline had been encouraged by the demand to fly to and from Tauranga.

"The recovery of our domestic network has been led by leisure travel demand, and it's encouraging to see Kiwis take the opportunity to visit Tauranga. We are proud to support Tauranga's connectivity to accelerate the region's tourism restart," he said.

Dunne said Tourism Bay of Plenty's partnership with Air New Zealand enabled greater opportunities to grow demand for the region.

"We're humbled by the support Air New Zealand offers us and the region so that we can sustainably grow tourism for the benefit of our community."