KEY POINTS:
More domestic tourists, driven by lower petrol prices, a warm summer and the recession, should help counter a predicted decline in international tourists to Northland, the region's economic development boss says.
Tourism is Northland's second-biggest industry after pastoral farming, earning about $700 million a year. But the credit crisis saw tourism leaders predict that a fall-off in international visitors would badly affect the region.
However, Enterprise Northland boss and Destination Northland chief executive Brian Roberts said lower petrol prices - fuel costs have dropped about 40 per cent since July - and marvellous summer weather were prompting more domestic tourists to visit as the recession turned Kiwis off overseas holidays.
And with the State Highway 1 motorway extension between Orewa and Puhoi opening next Sunday - making Northland 15 minutes closer for Aucklanders - and the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research predicting above-average temperatures for the next three months, things were looking far rosier than first thought, Mr Roberts said.
"We've had a great start to the year in tourism with things as good as, if not better, than ever," he said.
"The money that has been going into [tourism operators'] tills in the past few weeks is fantastic and provides a bit of a buffer if there is a downturn.
"And the good weather we've been having means that people have been staying longer than planned and that more people are coming. At the moment, there just hasn't been the real drop in visitor numbers that we expected."
Mr Roberts said the motorway extension would be massive for Northland and for business and tourism in particular.
He said if international visitor numbers did fall in March and April, a Destination Northland marketing campaign - 'Guess What? Northland's 15 Minutes Closer', playing on the motorway extension - should attract more Aucklanders north. The new 7.5km toll motorway bypasses winding, narrow sections of SH1 on the existing Hibiscus Coast route. But more importantly, Mr Roberts said, it would overcome a major psychological stumbling block preventing
some Aucklanders making the trip north. "It means they will no longer have to go through the bottleneck that developed from Orewa at peak holiday times. The extension should make that a thing of the past and mean we get more Auckland visitors," he said.
"We only need a 1 or 2 per cent increase in the Auckland domestic market to more than offset a 15-20 per cent drop in international visitors."
- NORTHERN ADVOCATE
