Extra tourists but motels missed out

A flood of extra tourists stayed in the Western Bay in July, but motels and hotels missed out on the boom as most chose to stay in backpacker lodges and holiday parks.
More than 14,000 extra visitors stayed overnight in the Western Bay in July compared with the same month last year.
But breakdowns of the figures show it was mostly backpackers lodges that reaped the rise.
More than 7000 extra tourists stayed in backpacker accommodation and almost 3700 extra visitors bedded down in holiday parks. But motels saw a smaller increase of 2166, while hotels hosted 1164 extra guests.
Tauranga Moteliers Association president and Bethlehem Motor Inn owner Lloyd Stone said members of his group had not noticed any pick-up in bookings on the July before.
"If anything, moteliers have said their numbers were down for July."
Mr Stone said it often happened that an influx of visitors - such as the thousands who came for the NZCT AIMS Games this month - did not translate to an increase in bookings.
"One motelier I talked to said of the 14 years he'd been in the business, last year was bad and this year had been worse.
"There are some hotels out there that have been barely breaking even this winter, and will have to square things away come summer."
Mount Main Street manager Leanne Brown also hadn't noticed a sudden filling of tills in Maunganui Rd shops during July.
"Retailers have said July was a steady month but, because there are so many factors and we have no way of quantifying activity, it's difficult to tell what impact the tourism may have had."
Tourism Bay of Plenty manager Tim Burgess nevertheless said the growth was "fantastic".
"We are ahead of the country by a long, long way. It's more good news, and we've had quite a bit of good news lately, like the review we had from Lonely Planet last week.
"Things are certainly starting to look promising for Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty."
Mr Burgess said the challenge for his group was to continue the year-on-year growth into the busier tourism months of summer.
"If we can get a result next January where we'll be 24 per cent up on January 2010, then yee-ha. I'd like to think we're heading into a positive spring, and if only this weather would stop, it would make it even more attractive for people to come here."
BY THE NUMBERS
71,111 visitors stayed overnight in the Western Bay in July this year - 14,092 more than the previous July, and the second biggest surge nationwide.
International tourist numbers increased 22 per cent - up 2848 people, from 11,976 to 14,824.
Domestic tourists increased 25 per cent - up 11,244 people, from 45,043 to 56,287.
The overall occupancy rate across hotels, motels, holiday parks and backpacker accommodation rose from 21.3 per cent to 26.7 per cent, while the occupancy rate for accommodation apart from holiday parks was 43 per cent during the month.
The average length of stay by visitors made a more marginal climb, from 2.46 nights to 2.49 nights.
The statistics also recorded the total number of overnight visitors in the district in 12 months to July 2010 had jumped 10.6 per cent - from 969,520 people to 1,072,262.