The “Economic impacts of spa and wellness tourism in Rotorua” report, provided by New Zealand leading regional economist Benje Patterson, has unveiled significant positive economic impact and shown the city's prominence as a premier destination for relaxation and rejuvenation.
This blog post looks at tourism spending across New Zealand’s regions to establish how the tourism sector recovery is going since borders reopened. The findings of which regions have more visitor spending than before Covid-19 may surprise you.
Benje Patterson estimated the potential use and economic impacts of a proposed Taieri Gorge extension to the Otago Central Rail Trail. An extension would give opportunities for bikers or walkers to travel between Middlemarch and Taieri, allowing for easy access from Dunedin with its large population and range of supporting visitor amenities.
Tourism is not just about the experience a visitor has while in New Zealand, the visit can forever change the person. There is untapped potential to build economic relationships with tourists beyond their visitor spend and lift their lifetime value to New Zealand.
Benje Patterson was commissioned by Enterprise North Canterbury to analyse the potential economic impacts from the creation of a dark sky reserve in Waimakariri centred on Oxford.
At least $291 million was spent by bike tourists who cycled through New Zealand’s production plantation forests in 2022. The top regions for production forest bike tourism are Rotorua, Auckland, Queenstown, Dunedin, and Christchurch, followed by Wanaka, Nelson Tasman, Taranaki, Taupō, and Coromandel.
Benje Patterson has recently investigated the economic impacts of biking in plantation forests in New Zealand. As part of this research, an international case study from Deschutes National Forest in Oregon, United States was presented.
A recent report by Benje Patterson estimates that there were 272,328 guest nights by silver tourists on the West Coast at the pre-Covid tourism peak, which equated to 21% of all guest nights in the region. The silver tourism economy, defined as touristic activity by people aged 65 years and over, represents a key growth opportunity for tourism in the West Coast.
The silver tourism economy is a big deal for New Zealand – with silver tourists representing one in five travellers across the country. Silver tourists are travellers aged 65 years and older. As a cohort these older travellers are often overlooked, but silver tourists represent a key growth opportunity for tourism across our regions.
Queenstown - they risk damaging the entire reputation of the New Zealand tourism sector. If people go home not having been able to wine, dine, and play how and when they want, then people won't wax lyrical about New Zealand to their friends and family when they return home.
A new Benje Patterson report commissioned by RotoruaNZ that assesses the contribution of mountain biking to the Rotorua Lakes Economy shows that $103.4m was spent in Rotorua last year by visitors who visited for the sole purpose of mountain biking. Other visitors who mountain biked while staying in Rotorua for other reasons spent a further $36.4m, a total contribution of $139.8m to the local economy.
It was a pleasure to sit down with BusinessDesk for a Sharesies shared lunch. We talked in detail about the tourism recovery, with a strong focus on understanding how demand is returning, but that labour challenges remain a key threat to the recovery.