Tourism bounces back in wake of Rena disaster

Tourism Bay of Plenty CEO Rhys Arrowsmith

Tourism in the Western Bay of Plenty has recovered from the Rena disaster, nearly 4 years after powerful TV images persuaded thousands of people to look elsewhere for their holidays.

The good news was announced by Tourism Bay of Plenty CEO Rhys Arrowsmith who said that spending by domestic visitors had returned to the national average for the first time since the Rena ran aground on Astrolabe Reef on October 5, 2011.

Mr Arrowsmith was updating Tauranga City Council this week on how the organisation had performed for the first six months of the financial year.

Figures showed that the Bay was also well on the way to recovering its share of the overseas visitor market which plummeted in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Mr Arrowsmith said spending by international visitors was the highest in six years, with December's figures 16 per cent ahead of a year earlier. Spending by domestic visitors had shot up nearly 10 per cent.

He credited the recovery on the $200,000 grant by the Mediterranean Shipping Company which chartered the Rena.

The money was used to run the "Plenty for Everyone" campaign which focussed on advertising events, utilising PR and television opportunities to showcase the Bay, and influencing key people in the tourism trade.

Another key statistic indicating the recovery was that visitors to the Western Bay's main tourist attractions grew by a third between 2013 and 2014.

Tourism BOP had contracted Black Pepper to upgrade its website. It budgeted $60,000 for the revamp.

The organisation also achieved a $55,000 turnaround on the $42,000 loss it had budgeted to rack up for the six months, emerging with a profit of nearly $13,000.

Mayor Stuart Crosby asked if there was any way Tourism BOP could measure the difference it made, compared with what would happen anyway. Mr Arrowsmith pointed to the fall in numbers that accompanied the suspension of Hamilton's tourist organisation and how the turbulent time for Rotorua's organisation had translated into static or dropping visitor numbers.