World Cup mixed bag for Bay operators

The Rugby World Cup proved a mixed bag for the Western Bay of Plenty, with some tourism operators reporting a marked increase in turnover while others struggled to stay out of the red.

The Tourism Industry Association has reported that a survey of their members showed that almost half (46.3 per cent ) of the tourism operators who responded felt the World Cup period was better than the same period the previous year.

About a a third of operators (33.9 per cent) said the World Cup period was considerably worse than 2010. About one-fifth (18.2 per cent) saw no change.

Western Bay tourism outlets fared similarly, recording a mixture of successes and failures through September and October.

Amanda Fleming, retail owner at Kiwi360 in Te Puke, said their family-run business had enjoyed a surprising increase during the tournament.

"It was a slow start and we though uh-oh. Then all of a sudden it was great," she said.

"The best people were the French, they came here by the bus load. I think one day we had eight French buses arrive.

"They bought everything, every single thing they could lay their hands on - anything that had the All Blacks on it."

The Rugby World Cup period became a standout in the company's financial calendar.

"Once it fired, once it actually kicked off, it was great," she said. "In the retail area, it was our biggest October on record."

Other tourism outlets didn't do as well as Kiwi360, however.

Springloaded Adventures failed to see the business hike that was predicted before the World Cup.

Senior driver Dave Raynor said he felt tourism operators had been let down by the region's council authorities.

"We got a few extra bookings out of it but not what we expected. We hired our summer staff early to cope with the rush the World Cup was supposed to bring.

"Off the top of my head I'd say we were down [over that period].

"Tourism Bay of Plenty let the whole side down, with us not having a game here ... [and] we set up on The Strand, it was supposed to be the place to be for it but we all know how much of a failure that was."

Waimarino director Blair Anderson said his company didn't see any extra business over the period either, although they didn't suffer losses.

"Generally, because we didn't bank on anything, we didn't lose anything. We were fairly neutral.

"Overall, we did not budget on any big increase. Had I invested a lot of money into it, I would've been very disappointed."

In the accommodation sector, too, the results were mixed, consistent with the Tourism Industry Association's report.

While hotels and campgrounds in Mount Maunganui reported busy bookings at the time of the World Cup, motels around Tauranga fared much worse.

Lloyd Stone, president of the Motel Association in Tauranga and owner of Bethlehem Motor Inn, said the tournament had been crippling for many Bay motels.

"Nobody was showing great increases in occupancy during the World Cup. The opening weekend, personally, we had not one soul in the motor inn."

Kiwis chose not to travel, preferring to stay at home and watch the games on television, Mr Stone said.

"The majority of the moteliers I spoke to said there wasn't a lot of bookings because of the World Cup - they weren't coming out, they were staying in."