Beach Hop brought in over $7 million to the local economy

A survey released yesterday afternoon showed the Beach Hop brought in over 100,000 people to Whangamata in the space of one week and generated at least $7 million dollars for the local economy.

This is the first economic impact study of the event and results prove that the impact on the local economy is considerable.

Whangamata Area Manager, Garry Towler, says "the survey estimates were calculated using the 384 participants and spectators average event spend of $1,427.39 with the assumptions that people stayed for five days on average and had two people in the party or group."

Survey Highlights

Over 80% of attendees came from other parts of the North Island. Some came from the South Island and 13 groups came from overseas.

The majority were aged between 50 and 59, and the next largest groups of attendees were in their 60s and 40s.

The income level of those who answered were, in order from largest number of attendees down, over $80,000 per year, $40-60,000 per year and $60-80,000 per year.

At least 13 people also bought property in the area, purely as a result of attending the Beach Hop.

For 92.19% of those who took the survey, the Beach Hop was the main reason for visiting the area at that time.

Many of those surveyed were long-time Beach Hoppers, with 12.11% having attended the Beach Hop 12 times. Most of those who attended had attended between four and six times, and for 12.63% this was their second time, and 87.76% said they were very likely to attend again next year. (7.55% answered "likely").

Most stayed between three and six days, but 16.14% stayed seven or more days.

The greatest individual spends were on accomodation, followed by food, fuel, shopping and finally, alcohol.

Check out the Beach Hop online here.

Next steps

The figure of $7 million dollars injected into the local economy is a conservative figure based on only 10,000 people who we know stayed at least five nights, but doesn't include the detail from the other 101,000 because it was hard to tell exactly how long some stayed or how many were in their groups. But even assuming only one person was in each group, that $7 million would be much more in reality.

Therefore, we'll be doing more in-depth research and surveys over future events to increase the robustness of the estimates and determine more accurately the event's significance, but we are thrilled with the results of our first survey and hope that many other events on the Coromandel grow to similar levels of success.

Contact the Whangamata Area Office on 07 865 0422 or email Sophie Dickinson to request copies of the full report when it is made available.

Noddy and Beach Hop team honoured

At a special ceremony after the release of the Economic Impact Study, the two Mayors of Thames-Coromandel and Hauraki districts honoured Noddy Watts and the Beach Hop team for their hard work and dedication for over a decade making the Beach Hop an iconic Coromandel and New Zealand event.

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