The Aotea Motor Lodge accommodates a lot of international corporates and is having to rely on domestic corporates due to international travel. Photo / Lewis Gardner
The Aotea Motor Lodge accommodates a lot of international corporates and is having to rely on domestic corporates due to international travel. Photo / Lewis Gardner
Signs of life are trickling back into the hard-hit tourism and accommodation sectors with an increase in bookings across the region during the country's first weekend out of lockdown.
With many Covid-19 restrictions lifted, more local attractions and accommodation providers have been able to open and people from other partsof the country are now allowed to travel to the region.
Marie Bonner from Whanganui's Aotea Motor Lodge said they had been fortunate to have remained open during the level 4 and level 3 restrictions accommodating essential service workers.
"Obviously we are down but we have been looking after essential services people and Thursday hit, now it's just madness, it's busy, we've got a lot of our corporates coming back," she said.
Bonner said they often accommodated corporates from overseas.
"As soon as they can get the travel back it will be brilliant because Whanganui has such big companies here and we deal with so many big companies from Australia so we're just missing them at the moment."
Bonner said they have also had seven major tour groups cancel due to that status of international travel.
"It's hurt everyone, but we're lucky we're not stuck in Queenstown."
Karla Swainson from Whanganui's Seaside Holiday Park said it has become a lot busier in level 2.
"We're able to take more people in whereas before it was a lot more limited the amount of people we were allowed to take in, so now we can have a bit more variety of customers."
She said they are slowly getting there with building numbers back up and bookings for the next few weeks were up.
Strategic Lead for Visitor Industries at Whanganui and Partners, Paul Chaplow is encouraging communities to try something new in their region, every weekend. Photo / Bevan Conley
Strategic lead for visitor industries at Whanganui and Partners, Paul Chaplow, said Whanganui's tourism was primarily domestic and meant 80 per cent of the typical visitor market would be available again even with international borders remaining closed.
Surafh Vaidyam, manager of The Mountain Rocks cafe in Ohakune, said they started to pick up in numbers slightly.
"Not like crazy busy like last year's season, this time of year is usually busy and compared to last year it's not."
However, they have had a few travellers though from Auckland and Wellington which he was grateful for.
Ryan Papple, manager of the Rocky Mountain Chalets, said it had been a bit quiet for them over the past few days but as soon as the announcement was made that New Zealand was moving into level 2 the phones started ringing and the emails started coming in for bookings.
He said these were mostly for the up and coming school holidays and ski season.
"It's still a little bit quiet but we're still trading and we've got guests coming in so that's a positive. I think a lot of people are looking forward to getting out and exploring our own country."
Whanganui and Partners is also preparing a domestic marketing campaign to run through winter to support the local visitor industry, with the goal of increasing Whanganui's market share of the national visitor spend.
"We're also keeping an eye on the potential Australian travel bubble, which would make a huge difference to NZ's visitor industry. Australians took 11.6m international trips last year, and currently account for about one third of Whanganui's international visitor spend," Chaplow said.
Chaplow would like to challenge the community to have one new experience in Whanganui every weekend.
"Whether it's trying out a new cafe or taking a glassblowing workshop, I'd love to see locals getting out and enjoying everything our region has to offer."
