Cathedral Cove - Top 50 Beaches

Announced as one of the Top 50 beaches in the world, demand to visit Cathedral Cove will continue to grow. The World's 50 Best Beaches, sponsored by Banana Boat, released its annual list of the best beaches in the world. The list is a collaboration with over 1,000 of the world's leading travel influencers and professionals.

Find out more about their selection process here

You can link to Cathedral Cove visitor information on your website here.

The World's 50 Best Beaches have provided this logo below for use on your digital channels. Please email us if you would like the original file.

Cathedral Cove track reinstatement options

Department of Conservation have released a presentation that explains the options they’re exploring for walking access.

Further updates on the process can be found here.

International Travel Trade

We continue to receive queries regarding the status of Cathedral Cove land access from inbound travel agents. Destination Hauraki Coromandel (DHC) attended eXplore with regions and businesses from the Central North Island. This year Driving Creek, Falls Retreat and Waihi Gold Discovery Centre were also in attendance.

Demand for export ready accommodation continues to be the leading request from inbound travel agents. This includes 4-to-5-star level accommodation that provides some level of hosting service e.g. meet & greet, breakfast provisions.

Next week we head to TRENZ with Driving Creek. In the meantime we’ve had trade famils in region experiencing export ready product. Following on from TRENZ we will begin the important 'follow up' process to assist in making connections between your business and the travel trade.

Pictured below: Inbound travel agents (buyers) and tourism product (sellers) at eXplore

The Coromandel Cure campaign

Domestic marketing activity is all but done. We have 6 print publications that will feature stories and/or ads that will signal the end of paid advertising - Kia Ora, Our NZ, Let’s Travel, UNO, Good. The shelf life of these publications will keep Hauraki Coromandel in the hearts and minds of our audience for a little longer. Beyond paid activity we will continue to remind kiwis that a holiday in The Coromandel is scientifically proven to be good for your soul!

March visitor numbers

Visitor spend for March 2024 was $37m, a record result for the month of March. The 28% increase is an encouraging sign given March 2023 was the only month to record an increase last year. Summer conditions continue to work in the favour of the visitor economy – the open roads, fine weather and sea conditions have all helped. Shoulder season events, particularly  the Repco Beach Hop and the Kubota Billfish Classic made a noticeable impact.

During March 2024 Hauraki Coromandel recorded the 10th highest number of transactions of all NZ regions measured, behind the 6 metro regions and popular tourism destinations of Queenstown, Northland and Wanaka. We were 12th highest in terms of total spend (for March 2024).

Please note this data is provided by Marketview and is based on Electronic Card Transactions only. These figures do not include cash and online visitor spend. Marketview data goes back as far as January 2016.