Tourists to Hawke's Bay last month spent a whopping $52 million here, as new figures put the region into record-breaking territory with two months still left in the year.
The latest Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) today show that tourism spend for Hawke's Bay last month was $52m, taking the total for the year to October to $621m, up 8 per cent compared with the year to October 2016 - in turn, surpassing the whole of last (calendar) year's record spend of $582m.
MBIE manager of sector trends Mark Gordon said that of that tourism spend in the year to October 2017, international visitors spent $173m (up 14 per cent compared with the year to October 2016), and domestic tourists spent $448m (up 6 per cent) in that period.
"When it comes to the monthly expenditure, tourism spend in Hawke's Bay for the month of October 2017 is up 15 per cent compared with the month of October 2016."
Retail was the big winner last month, with tourists spending $13m in that sector, while another $9m was spent on the food and beverage service sector, and $8m on the alcohol, food and beverages sector.