GISBORNE'S tourism industry is on course for a bumper year. New figures show tourists have already spent nearly $7 million more than they did by this time last year.
The latest Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) show that visitor spending forGisborne is estimated to be $138 million for the year to July 2017.
This is up 5 percent on the same period last year.
MBIE manager of sector trends Mark Gordon said international visitor spending made up $30m of Gisborne’s total (up 12 percent compared with the year to July 2016), with domestic visitor spending at $108m (up 3 percent).
“Monthly expenditure for July 2017 ($9m) was down 1 percent in Gisborne compared with July 2016,” Mr Gordon said.
