Coromandel economy affected by endless bad weather - visitor spending drops

Whangamatā beach, Coromandel. Photo / RNZ / Libby Kirkby-McLeod

By Libby Kirkby-McLeod of RNZ

Coromandel has seen the biggest drop in visitor spending of any tourism region, with electronic card transactions down 20 per cent on last year.

The Government last week committed $200,000 to the Thames-Coromandel District Council to help it bring visitors back.

But with one of Coromandel’s key attractions Cathedral Cove still closed, along with the state highway which crosses the peninsula, how are local businesses hanging on?

Liam Blunden from Salt District Brewing said you could not beat Whangamatā on a sunny day - there have just been too few of those this year.

“We literally had a few weekends where we couldn’t even open the doors because we thought the building was going to fall over.”

Liam and his business partner opened the boutique brewery, whose beer can only be found locally, this January.

It has been a rocky start, and a bit scary for the team.

“Making the beer and growing the business is the fun and exciting part that we really love and enjoy, but you get thrown these curveballs and there’s no real book on how to manage them.”

Pedal and Paddle in Whangamatā has been run by Chris Coombe for 17 years, and he has kept a record of the weather each day.

He said this year has been, without a doubt, the worst on record.

Coombe said the area had been hit from all directions and the only way to thrive in Coromandel now was to diversify.

“You’ve got to react to the changing circumstances, you can’t just stand still.”

Katrina Miller from Surf n Stay agreed, saying another important thing had been spending more time communicating with people about their travel.

“After the cyclones, we had people concerned about coming,” she said, adding that they had to help people understand the roads which were open to them.

Coombe said it was important to plan around the cross-peninsula State Highway 25A not being open for some time.

“We’re actually planning on it never to be open, that’s how we’ll base our business model going forward so that we can capture people entering into the town either from the south or the north.”

Destination Hauraki Coromandel is based in Thames.

Without SH25A, going from Whangamatā to Thames would require going right around the peninsula.

General manager Hadley Dryden said the $200,000 the Government had given the district to help attract back visitors was just the tip of what was needed.

“What these events have done is actually expose the challenges that have already existed in the region.”

Dryden said it had also exposed opportunities, and there was a huge amount of work that had to be done on top of business as usual.

Was he excited about the money?

“I’m not sure excited is the right word. There’s a real feeling of desperation here in Hauraki-Coromandel, and any support that is provided would be gratefully accepted.”

Everyone agreed that a good summer, with the sun shining from October to March, was what would most help the peninsula.

Waka Kotahi said work to repair SH25A was underway.

- RNZ