We’re open: Tourism boss trying to attract Kiwis back to Hawke’s Bay

The cancellation of the Art Deco Festival was a blow to Hawke's Bay tourism.

Hawke’s Bay Tourism is working overtime to assure domestic travellers the region is open for business.

International visitors, thanks in large part to the cruise ship industry, are almost back at pre-Covid levels, but it is Kiwis that businesses in the Bay are really trying to attract.

Domestic visitor spending for this March was down 28 per cent on 2021 figures. Even at the height of the Omicron outbreak, in March 2022, 13 per cent more was spent in Hawke’s Bay by visiting New Zealanders than in the corresponding month this year.

It could take years for the region’s horticultural sector to recover from Cyclone Gabrielle, but 90 per cent of businesses in the tourism and hospitality industries are fully operational and eager for trade.

“There’s no wonder our operators and hospitality providers within the visitor economy are feeling the pinch,” Hawke’s Bay Tourism chief executive Hamish Saxton said.

“Businesses lost between six to eight weeks of work during what should’ve been one of their busiest periods, including a month’s worth of cruise ship visitors, and are still trying to recover.

“February to April - along with other summer months - can normally be relied upon to carry businesses through the quiet winter season. Without these quality months, there is certainly potential for nervousness.”

Saxton said tourism and hospitality was the third-largest contributor to the Hawke’s Bay economy and accounted for about 10 per cent of overall employment.

“So it is critical to the [cyclone] recovery.”

To that end, Hawke’s Bay Tourism has launched a campaign aimed at convincing Kiwis that not everything is buried under a mountain of silt.

Called ‘Live from Hawke’s Bay’, it captures “current, authentic, post-cyclone footage of visitor experiences” in the region, Saxton said.

“It is designed to reaffirm the readiness and excitement of everyone in Hawke’s Bay and to illustrate our visitor economy remains largely untouched.”

Cost of living expenses are another potential deterrent to domestic travel.

Saxton said research, including that done by BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander, suggested a “softening” in the domestic travel market across the country for the next three to six months as a result of cost of living pressures.