Tourists spent $1.8 billion in the Bay of Plenty in the past year, up 6 per cent from the previous 12 months.
The latest Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates were released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment today. Manager of sector trends Mark Gordon said that of this tourism spend in the year to September, international visitors spent $615 million, up 8 per cent on the year to September 2016, and domestic tourists $1.2b, up 5 per cent.
"When it comes to the monthly expenditure, tourism spend in Bay of Plenty for the month of September 2017 is up 6 per cent compared with the month of September 2016."
The ministry developed the Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates in consultation with tourism industry representatives to create a better measurement of the value of tourism by region.
"Visitor spending information for the regions helps inform investment and planning in the tourism industry by providing insight into where domestic and international tourists are spending their money.
"Our figures are based on card transaction data. Users can filter the data to get the information they need, including breaking it down by year, key areas within regions, country of origin, and tourism product groupings such as accommodation, transport and retail sales."
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 here.