Gisborne tourism spending on the rise

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THE tourism industry in Gisborne has grown faster than in both Wellington and Auckland over the past six months.

The latest Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) show that visitors to Gisborne spent $9 million last month, bringing the total spend for the first half of the year to $138m.

That was up 5 percent compared with the year to June 2016. By comparison, spending in Wellington rose just 2 percent, while Auckland experienced a 4 percent rise.

MBIE manager of sector trends Mark Gordon said that of this tourism spend in the year to June 2017, international visitors to Gisborne spent $30m (up 12 percent compared with the year to June 2016), and domestic tourists spent $108m (up 3 percent) in that period.

“When it comes to the monthly expenditure, tourism spend in Gisborne for the month of June 2017 is up 7 percent compared with the month of June 2016.”

MBIE developed the Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates in consultation with tourism industry representatives to create a better measurement of the value of tourism in the regions.

“Tourism spend information for the regions helps inform investment and planning in the tourism industry by providing insight into where both domestic and international tourists are spending their money.”

Nationally, the West Coast experienced the biggest rise in year-on-year spending — up 15 percent to June, compared with the same six month period last year, while the overall spending was up 6 percent nationally.