The Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates (MRTEs) for August are now available on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment website. The MRTEs aim to provide a regional picture of tourism spending.
What the data says:
The Wellington region had the highest growth in tourism spend, up six per cent for the year ended October 2019. The growth was driven by an increase in international spend, up 13 per cent, and a smaller rise of three per cent for domestic spend.
The Gisborne and Bay of Plenty regions also showed strong growth, both up four per cent for the year ended October 2019. Gisborne's growth was driven by a 16 per cent increase in international spend, while domestic spend rose by only one per cent. The Bay of Plenty growth was driven by international and domestic spending increases of four per cent each.
West Coast, Northland and Marlborough experienced a decline in total tourism spend for the year ended October 2019. In the West Coast, total spend declined by four percent, driven by a nine per cent decline in domestic spend. Total spend declined by one percent in the Northland and Marlborough regions, driven by a decline in domestic spend of two per cent and three per cent, respectively.
The MRTEs aim to provide a regional picture of tourism spending and enable the regional tourism organisations to assess trends and changes in international and domestic spend over time.
The MRTEs were designed to estimate regional spending patterns and relativities between regions.
MRTEs are indicative and best suited to analyse trends and should not be used to represent national spend trends.
To view the report, visit the MBIE website.
