Tourism spending data for March 2018 released

Tourism spending data for March 2018 released

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

MBIE’s Manager of Sector Trends Mark Gordon says that the region with the fastest-growing tourism spend was the West Coast (up 14 per cent to $557 million) followed by Taranaki (up 13 per cent to $387 million) and Otago (up 12 per cent to $3.8 billion).

“The West Coast was the only region where domestic spending grew more than international spending, however all regions in New Zealand saw double-digit growth in international spending,” Mr Gordon says.

“We’ve also seen large increases in monthly tourism spend for March 2018 in the majority of regions.”

The largest increases in monthly tourism spending were in Gisborne (up 40 per cent), Taranaki (up 23 per cent) and Marlborough (up 22 per cent). Otago tourism spending was also up 21 per cent in March 2018 compared with March 2017, with Ed Sheeran concerts held in Dunedin, likely contributing to this result.

Mr Gordon says MBIE developed the MRTEs 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.”

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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