Bushy Park Homestead's main source of income was domestic tourists. Photo / NZME
New data has shown Whanganui recorded the best growth for domestic visitor spending of any district in the country for April 2023.
From data collected by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment from 31 Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs) only five regions had domestic visitor spending grow in April 2023 when compared to April 2022.
Of those five, Whanganui topped the list, with RTO Whanganui & Partners recording growth of 5.2 per cent.
This was over double the amount of growth recorded by the next-highest RTO, Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, of 2.5 per cent.
Neighbouring RTO CEDA Manawatū was down 4.1 per cent, while overall domestic spending in New Zealand was down 5.6 per cent.
Whanganui & Partners’ strategic lead of visitor industries Paul Chaplow said topping the table was excellent news for the region and continued its positive economic trend.
“What is exceptional about April’s domestic visitor-spend growth is that we are seeing good growth at a typically quieter time of the year.
“The growth is also significant because for Whanganui it is a case of maintaining momentum,” Chaplow said.
The district’s profile was continuing to grow, which he said he heard anecdotally but also in data they tracked, with a positive correlation between visitor spend, the information they recorded on promotional activity and data tracking the perception of Whanganui.
“In 2022, visitors were speaking overwhelmingly positively about our festivals and events, our beaches and our heritage architecture.”
Lease owner of the Bushy Park Homestead Dale Pullen said domestic tourists were the main source of his income and he specifically marketed the homestead to domestic tourists rather than internationals.
“Return guests are a big portion of that and local functions and events,” he said.
This weekend he said the homestead was booked for both a wedding of 60 people and a birthday party of 40 people.
When he bought the lease to the homestead five years ago it had been very quiet but since then visitor numbers had grown year after year.
“Last year was my best financial year to date, every year is better than the one before and I think that it is because Bushy Park has become quite iconic to the Whanganui area,” he said.
His customer base was mainly made up of older clientele and people looking to relax amongst nature, whether this was for accommodation or functions.
Part of its appeal also came down to how rare it was to find a place like the homestead.
“It’s the last of an old era, I mean we’ve lost the Chateau [Tongariro].”
He expected the positive growth to continue for the next year and also expected more international tourists to make their way to the homestead as word continue to get out about it.
“The international tourists that come are the ones that are specifically looking for nature, birds, heritage homes, so they’re searching us out,” he said.
Riverland Family Park owner Michael Wilson said the park was mainly frequented by local regulars rather than tourists.
“We get a lot of repeat customers all the time and they’re mostly locals,” he said.
Due to the park being entirely outdoors, their customer numbers were very weather-dependent and Whanganui’s rainy year had affected how busy they had been.
“We’ve had quite a lot of rain so I’d probably say we’re probably on par,” he said.
Though compared to earlier in the pandemic, numbers had significantly improved.
Caroline’s Boatshed general manager Shylo Chadfield-Waitokia said the number of out-of-towners had definitely increased over the last year.
It differed from earlier in the Covid-19 pandemic when the restaurant had relied entirely on local customers.
“We’ve had people coming in from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, we get quite a vast range of people,” he said.
In the next few months, he had a booking coming for 70 people from the south island who were coming here for a football tournament.
He didn’t know if this increase in business would continue given the increasing economic pressures but knew the restaurant would keep on keeping on.
“I do know people like going out, people like to eat and when they eat they drink.”
As the winter months continued, Chaplow said Whanganui & Partners would continue their promotional activity.
“We hope to continue to see new users of the ‘Official Discovery Guide’ initiative we undertook in this campaign,” he said.
The guide helped people learn about the variety of experiences in the region and gave the visitor industry and hospitality the ability to create their own listings.
The guide was launched with a competition which attracted 7835 entries.