Bay eyes place among top five tourist destinations

Tourism Bay of Plenty general manager Rhys Arrowsmith is expecting a bumper summer for tourism operators. Photo / John Borren

The number of visitors coming to the Bay and how much they are spending has gone up in 2014, and industry heads are hoping the upward trend continues into 2015.

Visitors are also spending more in the Bay than several other top tourist destinations including Rotorua, Northland and the Coromandel. However, the Bay of Plenty combined region is ranked sixth nationally by visitor spend after Auckland, Wellington, Queenstown, Christchurch and the Waikato.

Recent results from Ministry of Business Innovation and Economics (MBIE) reveal that guests to the region have injected a combined tourism spend of $585 million into the local economy.

This is made up of $458m from domestic visitors and $127m from international visitors and gives a growth of 5.78 per cent year on year.

Tourism Bay of Plenty general manager Rhys Arrowsmith said the Bay had plenty to offer both domestic and international holiday-makers and said the results would "be music to the region's ears as we enter what we expect will be a fantastic peak season".

He said 2014 had been a good year for the tourism industry in the Western Bay.

"[This year] really started to see a strong turnaround across the region, which now places us in the top five domestic spend regions in New Zealand, with an additional increase of $30 million in international spend."

Statistics New Zealand's latest official figures for Commercial Accommodation also showed strong growth with the combined region recording 8.9 per cent growth in guest nights year-on-year in October 2014. At 1,335,496 guest nights to October 14, the region sits in seventh place nationally for annual guest nights.

Mr Arrowsmith said he hoped the growth would continue next year, and that would be his focus at Tourism Bay of Plenty.

"The Bay of Plenty is sitting amongst the five major regions in the tourism industry domestically, and seventh overall," he said.

"We have a vision to be a Top Five destination by 2025 so will continue to work towards this vision."

Tauranga-based New Zealand First list MP Clayton Mitchell said someone needed to "hero" tourism in the Bay.

He said the Bay was heading in the right direction, especially with the implementation of new events across the summer calendar.

He said events were crucial to positive tourism and economy in the Bay.

He said one aspect which could be implemented was "some sort of arts or cultural trail" for visitors to take part in.