Taupō tops May visitor spend

Destination Great Lake Taupō (DGLT) jumped to the top of the May visitor spend rankings from third place last month, according to the latest MBIE Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates.

The RTO saw monthly spend rise 18% to $38m – of which the lion’s share ($28m) was domestic spend. This follows 21% growth last month.

“Compared to a national increase of 6%, Taupo is showing exceptional growth, led by a strong increase in both domestic visitors and international visitors from the USA”, says DGLT general manager Jane Wilson.

DGLT’s YTD figure is also up against the national benchmarks. Total visitor expenditure for the region is up 8% to $679m - compared with national growth of 4%.

“These figures reinforce that DGLT’s key strategic shift to attract more high net worth individuals for longer stays, along with media, PR and campaign activity that targets travel during the shoulder seasons is delivering excellent results for the region.

“Our offshore work targeting Australia, UK and US travel agents and wholesalers is also contributing to this growth phase, reinforcing the value of the work we are doing in these markets” says Jane.

Tourism Central Otago and Tourism Bay of Plenty took second and third spots in the monthly table with growth of 15% to $13m and 14% to $76m respectively.

Overall, 20 RTOs saw spend increase while 12 saw no or negative growth. Last month all but one RTO recorded positive growth, the exception being ChristchurchNZ which remained static at $261m.

The South Island’s Lake Wanaka Tourism and Destination Queenstown were both down 4% to $23m and $120m respectively. This time last year Lake Wanaka Tourism showed robust growth with expenditure up 29% to $25m.

Nationally spend was up 6% in the month to $2.059bn, and 4% annually to $29.49bn. Last month national growth came in at 3% for the 12-month period with visitor spend hitting $29.3bn in the April year.

ENDS.

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