Puke Ariki Hits The Million!

4 October 2004

Puke Ariki Hits The Million!

Were you Puke Ariki’s one millionth customer?

If you visited Puke Ariki on Monday 6 September between 2pm and 3pm, then you could well hold a very special place in the history of Taranaki’s award-winning facility. It was during that time that the millionth person went through Puke Ariki’s doors since it opened in June 2003.

Latest statistics show a grand total of 1,033,155 visitors from June 2003 until September 26 2004.

General manager Customer Services for New Plymouth District Council Barbara McKerrow is delighted with the numbers. “This is very exciting for everyone involved with Puke Ariki, as we have not only reached our visitor targets but have well and truly exceeded them.”

Puke Ariki, next to New Plymouth’s foreshore, is the world’s first fully-integrated purpose built museum, library and information centre. In a recent customer satisfaction survey conducted in August 2004, the overall satisfaction rating of Puke Ariki was 99%.

Sixty-six per cent of visitors were from New Plymouth District with 14% from the Taranaki region, 14% from throughout New Zealand and 6% from overseas. In December 2003, 18% of respondents were from overseas, showing December as a much stronger tourist month than August.

The ages of people with the highest recorded number of visits were 20-34 years and 65-69 years.

Respondents named Puke Ariki as their preferred choice of leisure activity with the foreshore and Coastal Walkway second, and shopping, retail, beaches, lakes and rivers third.

“In just over a year Puke Ariki has become an iconic visitor experience and a site that most people in Taranaki visit regularly,” says Mrs McKerrow.

“It sits well alongside the 8km Coastal Walkway and in close proximity to the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery – the premier contemporary art gallery in Australasia.

“Major facilities such as Puke Ariki prove that groundbreaking services can be developed outside the main centres of New Zealand, and that our country’s heritage and information facilities are as good as, if not better than, such facilities elsewhere in the world,” she says.

ENDS

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