Monthly regional tourism estimates released by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment showed visitors to the Upper Clutha now spend more than $500million each year. Annual visitor spending increased from $427million for the year ended June 2016 to $502million for the year to June 2017.
Domestic visitors topped the list, spending $189million last year. Australian tourists were next, spending $91million.
Chinese tourists continue to be a growth market, spending $49million in the past year, up from just $6million in 2012.
Lake Wanaka Tourism general manager James Helmore said the increases were not just positive for the tourism sector but the Wanaka economy as a whole.
"The tourism dollar has a broad impact for the region with spend spread across a wide variety of sectors, from food and beverage, recreation, retail, accommodation, through to fuel, automotive and activities."
While reaching the half-billiondollar mark was worth celebrating, what was even more impressive was the sustained growth in the past two or three years, Mr Helmore said. Wanaka led the country in terms of percentage growth in tourist spending during the past two years with a 20% increase in 2016 and a 17% increase this year.
"Wanaka is the leading region and has been for two years, so it’s not like this is just a burst. It’s been sustained over a reasonable period of time."
Growth at such a high level would not last forever and it was important the region started to plan for ways to make sure it was sustainable, Mr Helmore said.
"We’re pretty realistic about it and don’t think we can sustain this level of growth because we’re starting to get congestion at certain times of the year and it takes a while for infrastructure such as accommodation to catch up with that."
Lake Wanaka Tourism was focused on spreading visitor numbers across the year more evenly and increasing the time visitors stayed in the district, he said.
"I think the increase in spend is actually related to people coming here across the entire year and staying longer, which is good for jobs, it’s good for businesses and, ultimately, it’s good for Wanaka."
