Regional tourism spending data for February 2018

29 March 2018

Regional tourism spending data for February 2018 released

The latest Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) today show that tourism expenditure grew in all regions over the year ending February 2018.

MBIE’s manager of Sector Trends Mark Gordon says that there has been positive performance in several regions around the country.

“The regions with the fastest growing tourism spend over the year ending February 2018 were the West Coast, which increased 12 per cent to $548 million, followed by Tasman, which increased 11 per cent to $317 million and Taranaki, up 11 per cent to $380 million,” Mr Gordon says.

Chinese New Year fell in mid-February this year (rather than late January, as it was in 2017), contributing to high monthly growth rates compared with February 2017. Spending for this market followed the pattern of previous years, concentrated in Auckland, Otago and Canterbury with the percentage change from February 2017 for the Chinese market in these areas at 25 per cent, 88 per cent, and 80 per cent respectively.

“Tourism spending in Kaikōura has also continued to recover, with tourism spending in the month of February 2018 almost double than in February 2017 and annual growth almost back to a positive figure,” Mr Gordon says.

Mr Gordon says MBIE developed the Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates in consultation with tourism industry representatives to create a better measurement of the value of tourism in the regions.

“Tourism spending information for the regions helps inform investment and planning in the tourism industry by providing insight into where both domestic and international tourists are spending their money,” Mr Gordon says.

MBIE has also today released new Regional Tourism Organisation (RTO) fact sheets. The factsheets were developed in consultation with Regional Tourism Organisations New Zealand (RTONZ) and the wider tourism industry. These factsheets provide a regional summary of tourism spend and accommodation statistics by RTO using publically available data from the Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates and Accommodation Survey. They will be updated following each release, and are available here.

A user guide providing information on how the estimates are calculated and how they should be interpreted is available here.

View the full statistics from the Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates.

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