Enterprise Great Lake Taupo general manager Kylie Hawker-Green. Photo / Supplied
Enterprise Great Lake Taupo general manager Kylie Hawker-Green. Photo / Supplied
While the June quarter bore the brunt of the Covid-19 lockdown, newly-released data shows things are not as bad as they could have been for the Taupō District.
Compiled by Enterprise Great Lake Taupō, the Quarterly Economic Monitor looks at 12 indicators and then compares how Taupō is doing compared to the Waikato and the whole of New Zealand.
The indicators are gross domestic product, traffic flow, health enrolments, consumer spending, residential consents, non-residential consents, house prices, tourism expenditure, car registrations, commercial vehicle registrations and jobseeker support recipients.
General manager Kylie Hawker-Green said the numbers were not as shocking as forecast however she said that doesn't take away from the negative impact Covid-19 has had on everyone and particularly those who lost their jobs.
Consumer spending was down 1.3 per cent for Taupō compared to the rest of New Zealand where consumer spending was down 2.8 per cent. Visitors flooding to the district in May when lockdown ended was a factor, however local people spending locally was also very important.
Consumer spending change was reported on separately and figures from Marketview-Paymark show Taupō outperformed Rotorua and Queenstown. The drop-off in spend was comparably far less for Taupō during lockdown, and the June, July, August spend change show an increase in spending on this time last year for Taupō.
"The July spend data outperformed Rotorua and Queenstown, our key benchmark markets," Kylie says.
"Up until last week we [Taupō District] were consistently outperforming district wide consumer spending on the previous year."
July school holiday spending was up 18 per cent on last year with shopkeepers telling the Taupō & Tūrangi Weekender after lockdown that instead of travelling overseas people were coming to Taupō and spending.
Large groups of people were also seen walking around together and Kylie says anecdotal evidence suggests families were reconnecting in Taupō during the school holidays after being separated for so long during lockdown.
International tourists visiting Hukafalls Jet in June 2018. Photo / Rachel Canning
New and used car registrations numbers are reported because Kylie says buying a car demonstrates confidence in ability to pay for it. Car registrations fell 7.1 per cent for Taupō compared to the rest of New Zealand where the numbers fell by 19.3 per cent.
"In the past a strong dairy payout has been correlated with strong numbers in car registrations," said Kylie.
New residential consents dropped 6.9 per cent for Taupō compared to a rise of 8.1 per cent for New Zealand. Conversely Taupō house prices rose 8.9 per cent for the quarter compared to year end June 2019. Comparing the same period, house prices in the rest of New Zealand were up 7.6 per cent for the June 2020 quarter. House sales volumes fell further (down 13.5 per cent) compared to a 6 per cent drop for the entire country.
Job losses in the June quarter were worse for Taupō compared to the rest of New Zealand, with 21.1 per cent more people (total of 1142 people) registering for Jobseeker Support compared to this time last year (when 890 people were registered). In the rest of New Zealand, 19 per cent more people registered for Jobseeker Support. The borders being closed meant tourism businesses targeting international tourists had taken a hit and were shedding staff. Last week sky diving company Skydive Taupō announced they were closing on September 13.
In March the seasonal migrant workforce moved to the Bay of Plenty for fruit picking.
"Come summer, no one knows what will happen with staffing. Will there be enough demand for the migrant and holiday labour force to return or not? A lot of them are here [in New Zealand] on seasonal contracts."
Kylie said the figures show there was a big spike in registrations for Jobseeker Support in April but after that the numbers stabilised.
"The bulk of new people seeking Jobseeker Support was in April," said Kylie.
The report shows non-residential consents falling away by 36.4 per cent for Taupō compared to 8.8 per cent for the rest of New Zealand. This is due to these consents being measured on value and there being $50.6 million in non-residential consents for Taupō for the year ended June 2019.
"The 10 year average is $30.8 million. Last year there was a big project at Tongariro Prison so our comparison was always going to be low. Conversely next year will be another spike due to the Covid-19 projects," said Kylie.
Going forward, Kylie says the challenge for the district is coping with going between various Covid-19 alert levels.
She said the impact on the events sector is huge, with planned events being cancelled and ongoing collateral damage from the Covid-19 coronavirus.
