With datasets provided by Marketview and the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), Great South continues to track visitor spend across the region.
The information received from Marketview uses in-person card transactions to track the spending behaviours of visitors to the region.
Based on this information, Great South has been able to identify that the region has performed strongly in the domestic market, since June 2020 showing an increase in domestic spend relative to the same period in 2019. Some key highlights from the information includes:
For September, Marketview data showed $13.3 million domestic visitor spend for Southland and $2.8 million for Fiordland. What is pleasing to note that for both areas, is that this is comparable for 2019 with Southland recording $11.4 million in domestic visitor spend and Fiordland $2.0 million the previous year.
This increased spend for the Southland area can be attributed to strong domestic visitation, which has been encouraged by promotional activity and campaigns such as Rediscover Southland. In particular, Rakiura/Stewart Island has seen its busiest winter at least in the last 7 years, with over 6,000 people getting their 'overseas trip' fix.
With Fiordland's tourism sector traditionally reliant on international visitation, the area continues to have lower visitation numbers and consequently lower spend statistics. A boost for the area was that the School Holidays did see a slight increase in numbers through the Milford Sound Terminal and it is hoped that this is able to continue as a result of local and national promotional campaigns.