Orca frolic at Dolphin Seafaris in the Bay.
A promotion to get locals to visit Western Bay tourism attractions saw hundreds of people register but only half of those selected showed up to one of the free attractions on offer.
Tourism Bay of Plenty ran the promotion, which gave residents the chance to go into a draw to
visit leading tourist attractions free of charge.
Tourism Bay of Plenty's Kristin Dunne said of the 12 attractions, Dolphin Seafaris was the most popular, but only half of the people used their free tickets. "Next year we will build in more time so that if those allocated tickets do not ring and book their space, we can reallocate the ticket to someone else," Ms Dunne said.
The 1396 free passes, which had to be used on November 1 or November 2, were worth $45,000.
Ms Dunne said Tourism Bay of Plenty had predicted a 40 per fall-off rate. "So it will be interesting to see the percentage of drop-offs from other operators."
