Pacific Coast view from The Pinnacles summit

Kia ora,

It is great to see so many businesses back in action, the roads re-opening (and the sun is out). We are slowly seeing visitors coming back to the region, please remind them to take their time to enjoy our landscape, coastline and communities and to drive with patience.

Communications via multiple channels welcoming people back after the storm that caused the SH25A slip were stalled by the arrival of Cyclone Gabrielle. We are now ready to present a welcome to our world.

TCDC Mayoral Disaster Relief Fund

Thanks to all of you who completed the business impact survey. Thames-Coromandel District Council urged the Government to provide vital assistance and the opening of the Mayoral Disaster Relief Fund was announced on Friday. Trust Waikato has since added a significant donation, and others are encouraged to do the same.

The Fund is open to Thames-Coromandel District Council residents, ratepayers, small business owners, and not-for-profit organisations who have suffered financial hardship because of damages caused by the Cyclone Gabrielle weather event.

For more information and to apply: TCDC Mayoral Disaster Relief Fund

Visitor Spend For January 2023 *

Hauraki Coromandel suffered the greatest decrease in visitor spend across New Zealand for the month of January when compared to the same time last year. Electronic card transactions recorded a 30% drop in visitor spend for the region compared to a 24% increase across the country.

However spend in Hauraki Coromandel was still the 10th highest of the 38 areas measured at $50.56m, demonstrating the huge importance of tourism to the region’s economy. The measured deficit of $22m does not include online purchases or cash payments, so the actual loss will be significantly greater still.

As expected, given the impact of weather events, Thames-Coromandel suffered a greater decrease than Hauraki District, down 32% and 21% respectively. Coromandel and Colville, Whitianga, Thames, Whangamatā and Tairua recorded decreases of at least 30%, with all other communities between 15 and 25% down.

Electronic Card Transactions, January 2023

$50,564,844m - 29.8% decrease (compared to Jan 2022)
1,119,424 transactions - 31.7% decrease (compared to Jan 2022)
Average Transaction Value $45.17
87.5% was spend by domestic visitors

Destination Hauraki Coromandel anticipates further poor spend data for February.

Visitor Numbers for January 2023 **

Visitor numbers to Hauraki Coromandel dropped by 25% for January. The average number of domestic visitors in the region each day was 26,751 compared to 35,731 in January 2022. This represents a total drop of 296,034 domestic visitors in the region across the month.

The return of international visitors was showing signs of recovery from the pandemic period. There were only 1974 international visitors to Hauraki Coromandel in January 2022 with 93,222 returning to our region in January this year.

Support

DHC continue to focus efforts on Support - for business, marketing and resilience.

Regular meetings with the Visitor Sector Emergency Agency allow us to share the desperate situation the business community is in with national tourism bodies, MBIE and others. We have continued to share the impacts while also acknowledging the situation in Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti who remain in response mode.

Hadley Dryden is meeting with Tourism New Zealand in Auckland tomorrow. The above data paints a clear picture of the impact of weather in January. Unfortunately February data will be much the same, the Hauraki Coromandel visitor sector is struggling.

Industry Zoom

DHC will schedule an online industry meeting for all businesses involved in the visitor industry. We will be in touch with a date soon.

* Spend data is provided by Worldline (formerly known as Paymark), the largest electronic card payment network in New Zealand.

** Data Ventures provides the average daily visitor number across the month using mobile phone data.

Ngā mihi nui

The team at Destination Hauraki Coromandel