Year-round marketing of Hawke's Bay as a tourism destination has helped generate a 6 per cent increase in tourism spending since August last year.
The latest monthly regional tourism estimates released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) showed that about $612 million was spent in the region for the year to August 2017.
MBIE manager of sector trends Mark Gordon said this was made up of $172m spent by international visitors (up 15 per cent compared with the year to August 2016) and $440m by domestic tourists (up 5 per cent).
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"When it comes to the monthly expenditure, tourism spend in Hawke's Bay for the month of August 2017 is up 14 per cent compared with the month of August 2016."