Cruise visitors WA165
Tairāwhiti’s regional tourism organisation has released a major new plan to bring in more tourism dollars and help the industry out of its post-Covid slump.
Two years in the making, Trust Tairāwhiti’s Destination Management Plan (DMP) intends to provide a 10-year “road map” to tourism success.
The 30-page DMP document, available to view on the trust’s website, identifies a unified approach as being key to success.
“Consultation with a broad range of stakeholders — including mana whenua, residents, tourism operators, the wider business community, and the Government — led to a comprehensive understanding of the tourism landscape and opportunities to shape future planning and development,” the document says.
“To build and develop the visitor economy in Tairāwhiti, there is a crucial need for greater alignment and engagement between industry, stakeholders and communities. The success of this plan relies on strong connections and providing engagement opportunities that will align the sector with the aspirations and values of the local communities.
“Promoting greater alignment and engagement will achieve a positive social licence for the visitor economy.”
The plan identifies key opportunities for the region to grow its tourism offering but also notes gaps in what the region could offer.
In particular, it notes a need to grow the number of export-ready products available, with “sustainable commission structures” that could appeal to international markets.
“As the domestic market has traditionally always been strong for Tairāwhiti, there is potential to open the region to international markets through developed export-ready experiences.
“There is a lack of experiences available for visitors to engage with. There needs to be a focus on this development to give visitors a reason to stay and the ability to spend more money in Tairāwhiti.
“While increasing supply will enable growth in the visitor economy, stakeholders, industry and iwi need to ensure these experiences are complementary, inviting visitors to stay longer.
“There is also a need to ensure current experience assets that support the arts and creative sectors are not lost. This includes live music venues, theatre companies, music clubs, events, cinemas and galleries.
“These activities and assets have a dual benefit. Many operate after hours, which increases the opportunity to draw revenue into the region and can be packaged with other tourism experiences to develop multi-day itineraries.”
The plan noted that data from research company Infometrics showed the tourism sector contributed $56.3 million towards gross domestic product in Tairāwhiti in 2022, accounting for 2.3 percent of the region’s economic output.
In 2022, economic output in the Tairāwhiti tourism sector increased by 6.4 percent, compared with an increase of 4.3 percent in New Zealand.
Total tourism spending in Tairāwhiti reached $151.8 million in 2022 but was down by 0.1 percent from the previous year.
In contrast, spending increased by 1.4 percent in New Zealand.
International visitors contributed 6.9 percent to tourism spending in Tairāwhiti in 2022, while domestic visitors contributed 93.1 percent.
“The visitor economy in Tairāwhiti showed signs of recovery in 2022 but remained below pre-pandemic levels,” the DMP document says.
That trend seems to be slipping again.
New figures from Worldline, which processes the majority of electronic card purchases, shows the latest consumer spending figures at the region’s hospitality outlets is still on the decline, with spending 4.1 percent down on January last year.
However, there are recent positive signs from overseas after leading United States publication, The Washington Post, featured Gisborne in a recent article naming the region as one of 12 international desinations in its “Where to travel in 2024, without crowds” story.
“We worked alongside Tourism New Zealand on this article as it was a great opportunity to showcase our unique cultural offerings and encourage regional dispersal,” Trust Tairāwhiti economic development general manager Richard Searle said.
“We’ll continue to build on this, working with regional and national partners to showcase Tairāwhiti to domestic and international visitors.”