Tourist spending in Hawke's Bay and nationwide is up from three years ago, pre-pandemic, as the industry recovers. Photo / Paul Taylor
Tourist spending in Hawke's Bay and nationwide is up from three years ago, pre-pandemic, as the industry recovers. Photo / Paul Taylor
Hawke’s Bay has had notable gains from a nationwide tourism rebound and big visitor spending in the later part of the year so far.
The most recent data from MBIE shows that the number of unique international visitors to Hawke’s Bay has increased over the year from around 1,200 at the beginning of 2022 to 8,100 in September.
Monthly Tourism Electronic Card Transactions (TECT) spend in Hawke’s Bay for September 2022 has increased for both domestic, by 26 per cent, and international visitors, by 25 per cent, compared with September 2019.
Those increases are both above the nationwide increase in each metric.
The monthly domestic TECT spend nationwide in September 2022 is up 24 per cent compared with September 2019, and the international TECT spend was up two per cent on the same period.
As the data only goes up to September, it would not account for the return of Napier’s first cruise ships in two-and-a-half years on October 24.
Minister of Tourism Stuart Nash said overseas visitor numbers were still steadily recovering, but those that did come were spending big.
“I’ve said many times that this summer is going to be a bumper one for our tourism sector with international arrivals spending big across the whole of New Zealand, including right here in the Hawke’s Bay,” Nash said.
Stuart Nash, Minister of Tourism, said he had predicted the upcoming summer would be a big one for tourism and spending. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Nash said in a statement that the overall national recovery of tourism was good news for the New Zealand economy.
“Before Covid-19, tourism was New Zealand’s largest export industry and delivered $40.9 billion to the country. Tourism also made a significant positive impact on regional economies, supporting employment by directly employing 8.4 percent (229,566 people) of the New Zealand workforce,” he said.
Hamish Saxton, chief executive of Hawke’s Bay Tourism, said that although visitor numbers had not returned to what they were at pre-Covid levels, international visitors were returning quickly.
“While Covid is far from a distant memory, the visitor economy is bouncing back,” Saxton said.
“In their Economic Overview report for November 2022, Westpac note the lifting of border restrictions has resulted in a sharp uptick in visitor arrivals, with growth increasingly being driven by visitors on long-haul flights rather than those from Australia or returning New Zealanders.”
He said Hawke’s Bay specifically has seen the steady arrival of domestic visitors.
He said visitor and local population estimates from Data Ventures and Tourism New Zealand showed a seven percent year-on-year increase in domestic visitors for the month of October in Hawke’s Bay.
“This is all good news for Hawke’s Bay’s visitor economy. It is not without its challenges though, with many in the industry continuing to face staffing and skill-set shortages.”
