All tourism businesses in the visitor economy have benefited from the influx of domestic visitors over the past few weeks, including accommodation, retail, hospitality, tourism operators, transport providers and event venues.
The Waikato region has jumped to third position behind Auckland and Christchurch on monthly domestic visitor spend for May 2020 according to the Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates published by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment. Although this is a 26 percent decrease in overall domestic visitor expenditure compared to May 2019, it is higher than the national average which is down 48 percent.
The Waikato also scored the second highest level of domestic visitors during the recent July school holidays (4-19 July 2020) across New Zealand in a recently published report by Data Ventures which was commissioned by Tourism New Zealand. This followed the success of domestic travel returning into the region during Queen’s Birthday weekend.
According to the report, Waikato achieved 19 percent growth in domestic visitor numbers during the July 2020 school holidays compared to July 2019, with an average of 55,140 domestic travellers visiting during the holidays, compared to 46,350 visitors this time last year.
We were only second in the country to Auckland who attracted 79,160 domestic visitors into their region.
With around 2.6 million people living within a three-hour drive radius of Hamilton and the Waikato region, we are a significant domestic drive market for the Upper North Island. Air New Zealand also increased capacity during the school holidays into Hamilton Airport from our fly markets of Christchurch and Wellington which gave us the extra boost as well.
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism has also been working hard to attract domestic visitors back to the region post-Covid, launching a number of marketing campaigns targeting the leisure, business and events market in key ‘drive and fly’ markets.
Waikato residents responded really well to the ‘Mighty Local’ campaign during Alert Levels 3 and 4, and now our ‘Open for Exploration’ campaign in the leisure market for domestic travellers outside of the Waikato, the ‘Mighty Welcome’ campaign in the business events market and deals on our website www.waikatonz.com are helping to drive increased visitation and spend.
These reported figures align to the anecdotal evidence we had from all our operators that they were “run off their feet” during school holidays. We are continuing to work with our industry to stimulate demand between now and the September/October school holidays, plus the lucrative spring/summer season.
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism have also partnered with Tourism New Zealand’s ‘Do Something New, New Zealand’ national marketing campaign to ensure Waikato is part of a Kiwi holiday ‘must-do’ list. This ensures that the Waikato region remains top-of-mind for Kiwis who are looking for a holiday within New Zealand.
We know that there is a strong demand for domestic holidays which is driven by a desire to support the local economy and to see more of New Zealand, both in the long and short-term. This is supported by domestic audience sentiment research from Tourism New Zealand which found that 64 percent of New Zealanders intend to holiday within New Zealand in the next 12 months.
The research also found that 43 percent of those New Zealanders that intend to holiday within the next 12 months intend to spend more than they typically would on domestic holidays, with restaurants and cafes, accommodation and transport providers likely to benefit the most.
To find out more about the Data Ventures reports on the July school holidays, Queen’s Birthday weekend and the domestic sentiment research, visit the Tourism New Zealand corporate website:
www.tourismnewzealand.com/markets-stats/markets/new-zealand/
Hamilton & Waikato Tourism is the regional tourism organisation charged with increasing international and domestic leisure and business travellers, expenditure and stay. The organisation is funded through a public/private partnership and covers the heartland Waikato areas of Hamilton City, Matamata-Piako, Otorohanga, South Waikato, Waikato, Waipa and Waitomo Districts. Find out more:
www.waikatonz.com
