Mount Maunganui Cosy Corner Holiday Park manager Greg Davidson. Photo / Mead Norton
Mount Maunganui Cosy Corner Holiday Park manager Greg Davidson. Photo / Mead Norton
Full campsites and busy restaurants have meant it has been a “pretty good” start to the holiday season in Tauranga.
And for those still looking to travel to the Bay, there is still “plenty” of accommodation available after the first week of January.
Mount Maunganui Cosy Corner Holiday Park manager Greg Davidson said the park was full at the moment and forward bookings were “well up” on the past two years.
“But once [the] 8th of January comes around, we’ve got plenty of sites and a bit of accommodation available. Most people seem to be taking the stat holidays and that’s it so we’ll see what happens from there on.”
Davidson said it had been open for two weeks as it was a seasonal holiday park, and there were plenty of campervans and European travellers around.
“And hopefully that’ll carry on into February [and] March which is usually when there are more of them travelling than what there is before Christmas.”
Davidson said he hoped walk-ins would help fill the holiday park in late January, February and March, which were quite common for overseas travellers.
“Especially the campervan market. They just don’t know where they’re going to be on any one day so they just turn up at the last [minute].”
Luke van Veen, owner of Papa Mo’s in Pāpāmoa and Fox’s Hawker House in Mount Maunganui. Photo / Talia Parker
Luke van Veen, owner of Papa Mo’s in Pāpāmoa and Fox’s Hawker House in Mount Maunganui, said it had been nice to see cruise ship visitors and holidaymakers in the Bay.
Van Veen said a garden bar had just been opened at Fox’s Hawker House, which had been “really good” for summer.
“Bookings are fine - we’ve got plenty of people in town and a lot of people keen to come out and socialise. This time of year ... a lot of walk-ins happen so people are just out and about, go for a day at the beach and then decide they just want to go out for dinner or something like that, or a couple of quiet drinks with friends, so it’s been good.”
Van Veen said the whole industry was “in a lot of pain” in terms of experienced staff.
“There are always young people keen to get into the workforce but they take a lot of time and training, which is fine, but at this time of year when you don’t have a lot of time to train them and it’s very very busy, it can be very hard sometimes.
“There’s a lot of guests out this year who really want to get out and socialise with friends and family and we really want to put on a good time for them.”
The Barrel Room owner Stewart Gebbie said its busy period did not start until “well into December” which was a bit later than normal.
He said it had been busy in December for Christmas functions but January was “far more relaxed”.
“People are making more spur-of-the-moment decisions.”
Gebbie also said backpackers had returned, who would often come in for a “quick drink” when they arrived by bus in Tauranga.
Chairman of the Hospitality NZ accommodation sector Bay of Plenty and the owner of Tauranga’s 850 Cameron Motel Tony Bullot. Photo / George Novak
Chairman of the Hospitality NZ accommodation sector Bay of Plenty and the owner of Tauranga’s 850 Cameron Motel, Tony Bullot, said it had been a “good start” to the season, with most places having been “packed out”.
Bookings for the next few weeks were looking busy and from January 3 and 4, there were “plenty” of rooms available.
“It’s still a lot more last-minute than before Covid because there’s less international [visitors]. Internationals seem to book months out.”
But staffing was “certainly the biggest challenge”.
“Even for us, if we lose somebody, if they move on for any reason, getting somebody isn’t so easy. It certainly means that owners are putting in more hours, cleaning rooms and making up the shortfall basically.”
Bullot said he was “lucky” to have a “very loyal” team of staff.
