Tena koe 

It has been four weeks since the weather event rolled through Hauraki Coromandel (and other areas of the motu) causing havoc and flooding in many parts of our beautiful rohe.

I wanted to acknowledge the financial, physical and emotional toll this event has had on many in our industry. For some, there was little or no impact. For others, it has been quite devastating. Regardless of where you sit on that spectrum, know that the Board and Team at DHC have held you in our thoughts, and we are here to support you in any way we can. Below we outline some of the proactive things we are doing to help our industry navigate the impacts from the weather event. 

Next week, the Board and Team of DHC have our first official meeting with the Mayors and Council representatives of our two funding partners - Thames Coromandel District Council and Hauraki District Council. We will be sharing with them some updates on our activity over the past six months, and some performance metrics (spoiler alert: the region has done impressively well over the period of June to December 2025). We will publish a summary our activity report and performance metrics on our website in March for those who are interested. 

Megan and Casey have been doing some great mahi to launch a new awareness campaign that has been in market for the past few weeks (more below) and we are starting to build our campaign plan for winter. We will send out more information shortly, but in the meantime - start thinking about what packages and offers you may be able to promote as part of the national campaign to drive winter visitation.

Casey has been working with operators across the rohe to confirm participation in Season 2 of the GOOD FOR YOUR SOUL - Kaitiaki programme. We can help embed the donation option into your online booking portal - just email us. If you'd like to know more about how your business can get involved, and benefit from the associated marketing and brand benefits at no cost to you, check out the Business Partner information here. 

I have started to plan for our participation at TRENZ this year. We have six businesses attending so will have a great presence at the event. We will be updating our trade information to share with the 52 prescheduled 15-minute appointments with buyers we will have over the two and a half days. Please be sure to send me anything that you feel would help us sell the region and sell your business! This could be new trade-ready products you have to offer, new offers, awards or recognition you have received, new branding or imagery, or anything else we need to know. 

Also on the international front, our Kiwi North collaborative campaign is in full swing in Australia, with heavy promotion in market on Tripadvisor, THL, Expedia and Campermate, with supporting airline deals from multiple carriers. Phase Two will launch in March, with a focus on wellness and rejuvenation, star gazing and Dark Sky, and Autumn / Winter travel. Please let us know if you have any products or deals that align to these themes. The dedicated Kiwi North website is due to go live any day, and regular EDMs are being sent to thousands of active considers across Australia. We will monitor any upswing in Australian visitation over the coming months - it is already our biggest international market and with the trans-Tasman flights now operating from Hamilton, one we are focused on growing.

Lastly, I have had two days in Auckland this week - a day meeting with all the other regional tourism organisation leaders from over the motu (there are 31 RTOs!), and a day with Tourism New Zealand - meeting their different divisions and teams and learning about what they are focused on for the year ahead. The consistent theme across both days was the emerging impact of AI on search activity. We are going to focus on this as a development area for our industry this year - and will offer both some toolbox type support as well as some workshops and online learning. My big takeaway - optimisation for traditional search does not work for AI. Your website service provider will be all over this - but if you are curious, there are free (well, free trial!) online tools that you can use to scan your website and give you feedback on your AI performance. Ironically, use AI to search up the best tool to use for your website (we are trialling SemRush and AHRefs). 

The other takeaway from Tourism New Zealand was the importance of keeping your information updated on the Tourism Business Database. Any changes to your products, your offers, your opening hours, new imagery, awards etc... please log in and update it frequently. AI likes new, fresh, updated content! This information also is used for your listing on our website, plus all the global marketing activity undertaken by TNZ - so it's really important to keep it current.

As we roll into March, we get ready to welcome the thousands of visitors who will flock to the region for Repco Beach Hop. This annual event is not only a massive boost for our industry, but I think a great boost for our community at large! The colour, the joy, the noise, the activity and the buzz is just what we need to shake off the weather-event blues. I will be out and about in my 1960 Thunderbird over the weekend and look forward to soaking up the vibe and welcoming visitors from all over New Zealand to our piece of paradise.

Nga mihi nui,

OUR PLACE

'Our Place' is a flexible digital campaign grounded in local voices and perspectives designed to maintain regional visibility and visitor confidence in the face of increasing weather-related disruptions. Developed in response to recent storm impacts and ongoing infrastructure vulnerability, it offers a long-term, scalable alternative to traditional “we’re open” recovery marketing. 

Our Place will become a resilient, evergreen marketing framework that can operate effectively during, after, and independently of storm events, supporting economic recovery, protecting vulnerable areas, and maintaining trust with visitors and communities. 

We aim to offset economic loss by promoting experiences and operators that are open, safe, and able to receive visitors - even when parts of the region are compromised; reduce pressure on damaged infrastructure by redirecting visitation to appropriate, socially supported locations; maintain positive regional perception at a time when negative weather coverage typically suppresses demand; and provide sensitive, accurate messaging that prevents overpromising and avoids visitor dissatisfaction.

Importantly, this is not an ‘On Again/Off Again’ Campaign. We want to avoid repetitive disaster recovery messaging and instead embed resilience into the region’s brand story by using a consistent, evergreen narrative centred on local stories.

How to get involved?

We are already in market with paid social media and Google carousels using Our Place tiles across the themes of:

• Our Place, your playground
• Our Place, shared carefully
• Our Place, after hours
• Our Place, take your time

We would love you to get involved in this awareness activity. Please email Megan a suitable hi-res hero image (with you featured, at place - as per the examples below) and a suitable quote. We will then make up a tile and send it back to you for your use in your online activity, and we'll add it to our carousels. 

eXplore 2026 - last chance to register!

7 May 2026 - Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland - Registration period extended for DHC in response to weather event

DHC is inviting tourism businesses interested in growing their international client base to consider attending the eXplore Show. This is an ideal starting point for new connections, as well as a valuable opportunity for established operators to maintain and strengthen existing trade relationships.

The event attracts a wide range of travel partners, from product buyers and decision-makers at inbound and wholesale companies to frontline staff from i-Sites, retail travel agencies, and inbound/wholesale operators, along with Tourism New Zealand trade and media teams. In past years, buyers have flown in from across the country and Australia to attend - and over 140 have already registered to attend this year.

Exhibitors have the valuable opportunity to network with other local products, attend a business development workshop, and at the show establish important sales contacts, making it an essential part of your annual marketing strategy.

We already have some businesses registered to attend (thank you!) and in response to the impacts of the recent weather event, the team at eXplore have extended the registration period for our region to allow you to consider attending. There may be opportunities to reduce attendance costs or staggered payment terms - reach out to us if you'd love to be there but your financial circumstances are prohibitive this year due to the weather event. 

Find out more here or download the prospectus and registration form. If you have any questions, please contact us.

Impact of the weather event for Hauraki Coromandel

Thank you to those who completed our business survey earlier this month to share feedback and insights from the weather event. This information has been incredibly helpful. DHC has been advocating to Central Government for recovery support, and the survey feedback has formed a key part of that advocacy. 

• 94% of respondents reported an immediate impact on current bookings due to the recent weather event (e.g. for Auckland Anniversary Weekend through to 5 Feb); 72% said a significant decrease, with a further 22% reporting a slight decrease.
• 78% of respondents reported an immediate impact on future bookings due to the recent weather event (e.g. from Waitangi Weekend onwards); 43% said a significant decrease, and 35% reporting a slight decrease.
• 31% of respondents reporting sustaining damage to their property; with 14% only partially operational and 2% not operational at all due to property damage. 
• 27% of respondents were fully covered by insurance for damages caused by the weather event, with 6% partially covered. 

We have been supporting Di and the Hauraki Rail Trail Trust to seek financial support to help with damage repairs to the Karangahake Gorge section of the trail which remains unrideable. Karangahake Gorge is an absolute hero for our region - and as such, the ongoing impact from the closure will without doubt ripple through our industry with reduced visitation.

For context, Karangahake Gorge is a major driver of visitation to thecoromandel.nz and continues to generate exceptionally high interest. Over the past six months, Karangahake Gorge content has consistently ranked within the top five most viewed pages across the entire website, typically surpassed only by our homepage and webcams. It attracts more than double the traffic of both Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove. It is currently one of our strongest organic interest drivers. It is the second most popular query driving clicks to thecoromandel.nz (behind “Hot Water Beach tide times”) and generates the second-highest number of search impressions, sitting just behind “Coromandel.” 

So, we are doing everything we can to help the Trail Trust secure the funding needed to get that section of trail opened ASAP. We are also working with DOC on a timeline to open the multiple walking trails through the Gorge that also remain closed. 

We have had our first cut of statistics that show the impact and continue to monitor these, and share with MBIE, MSD and other key stakeholders to show the ongoing ripple impact of the weather event.

• Visitor spending for the month of January (combined domestic and international) was down $7.12m (about 11% down from last year) and the lowest January spend since Cyclone Gabrielle.
• There was a reduction of 27% of visitor spend in accommodation. This is not surprising – but is sizeable given the reduced trading only occurred in the last week of the month and had been tracking comparably against 2025 numbers until the weather event.
• Our daily spend trackers show a massive reduction in visitor spend over the comparative Auckland Anniversary weekends - $2.6m spent on the Saturday of Auckland Anniversary 2025, vs $1.2m on the Saturday of the long weekend this year. 
• The visitor count data has been released by Vistr for January, showing 55,148 less overnight stays compared to January 2025. Prior to the weather event, we had been tracking ahead of 2025 for the month, so this is a clear indication of the impact of the weather event and road closures.
• Both Whangamatā and Whitianga recorded 21,000 less visitors each for January.
• Visitor numbers for Waitangi Weekend were also lower than 2025 across the region.

We have met with MBIE and MSD to understand what funding support may be available. If your business has been financially impacted by the storm, there may be help available. Please reach out and we can point you in the right direction.