RWC kickstarts Bay visitor numbers

Hawke's Bay's accommodation industry has recorded an expected early kickstart to the spring and summer season through the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Statistics New Zealand released its commercial accommodation monitor late last week and it showed guest nights in Hawke's Bay for the month of September were up 18.1 per cent over the figures for September 2010.

The increase equated to an additional 10,451 visitor nights.

Whole domestic guest nights were down, it was the international guest nights which brought smiles to the faces of those offering rooms.

They rose from 9963 in September 2010 to 22,097 during the recent RWC September.

"It's been a really positive early start for the season," Evan Jennings from the Bay View and Westshore Motel Groups said - attributing the figures to the world cup.

Motels had the biggest increase, followed by holiday parks, and the Bay was the fifth-ranking region in terms of visitor performance for September.

General Manager of Hawke's Bay Tourism Annie Dundas was understandably thrilled with the visitor numbers.

"The Rugby World Cup had a major impact on our visitor results for September. Visitors from all over the world have experienced Hawke's Bay first hand - the word of mouth alone from those additional visitors will be a fantastic legacy for us," she said.

"This boost in arrivals comes just before the summer season and at the same time our domestic advertising is kicking off around New Zealand so we hope the positive news continues."

September was the second consecutive month Hawke's Bay visitor numbers had shown an increase with August commercial accommodation monitor figures up 15 per cent to 57,027 against August 2010, with overall occupancy rising from 20.9 per cent to 25.9 per cent.