Tauranga coastal shoppers loyal to their own area

Local Mount Maunganui and Papamoa people prefer in their own backyard at Bayfair rather than journey to Tauranga's CBD.

Mount Maunganui and Papamoa residents are fiercely loyal to their shops and entertainment venues, with the rest of the city barely getting a look in, a major survey has revealed.

It highlighted how Mounties' poured most of their retail spend into their own backyard, 25 years after they were forced to join with Tauranga City.

Six hundred people split equally between the Mount/Papamoa, Te Papa/Welcome Bay and Otumoetai/Pyes Pa were interviewed in a council-commissioned survey on perceptions towards downtown.

Only 14 of the 200 Mount and Papamoa residents chose the downtown as their preferred destination to shop and be entertained, compared with nearly 70 of the 400 people living in other areas of the city.

Mount and Papamoa people were also apathetic about Fraser Cove, Bay Central (Chapel St) and Gate Pa. Only 10 pledged their loyalty to these destinations while Greerton Village and Bethlehem Town Centre were virtually ignored.

The telephone survey had a 4.9 per cent margin of error and was done to identify barriers to visiting the city centre and to help understand how much paying for parking influenced people's decisions.

More than half of those surveyed in the Mount and Papamoa chose Bayfair as their best all-round shopping and entertainment destination (112 people) followed by the Mount Shopping Centre (42) and Fashion Island and Palm Beach Plaza (20).

Fashion Island and Palm Beach Plaza fared badly across the rest of Tauranga, barely scraping together two supporters from the 400 surveyed.

Fraser Cove's pulling power was slightly stronger than Bayfair's for residents living in the central city and Welcome Bay, accounting for 62 supporters. Only 16 of the 200 chose Greerton Village, while Bay Central did not register at all.

Bayfair easily topped the poll for the city's western suburbs and Pyes Pa, attracting 60 supporters - 24 more than the downtown. In contrast to their central city/Welcome Bay neighbours, Fraser Cove ranked only slightly ahead of the Mount Shopping Centre, with each getting about 27 supporters.

Like Fashion Island and Palm Beach Plaza, nearly all those loyal to Bethlehem Town Centre lived within an easy drive.

Mountie Allan Goodhall said he was not surprised by the loyalty of the Mount and Papamoa to local businesses, saying there was little to attract them to drive across the bridge.

The results of the survey on carparking also came as no surprise. He said free carparking had become a red herring and was not the panacea of all ills. There could be bigger issues such as the mix of shops, style of service and the feel of the downtown.

Fifty-four per cent of those surveyed said parking needed to change to make them visit the downtown more often. Asked how they would like parking improved, only 38 per cent of the 54 per cent said carparking needed to be cheaper or free. Twenty-two per cent wanted more easily accessible parking.

Although the city centre was recognised as the commercial hub of Tauranga, nearly 500 of the 600 people surveyed said they visited the downtown for commercial services less than once a month or not at all.