Holidaymakers boost business in upper south

Thursday, 30 December 2021

Business in Nelson city has been boosted by an increase in holidaymakers. File photo.

Top of the south businesses are making the most of an upturn in holidaymakers, while bracing themselves for what may follow in the new year.

Spending figures from Worldline (formerly Paymark) show it processed $1.7 million of transactions in Nelson retail stores on Boxing Day, although this was down four per cent on last year’s figure, and was a nine per cent decline on Boxing Day 2019.

In Marlborough, Worldline processed $1.1 million of retail store transactions – a two per cent increase in spending on 2020, but down 11 per cent on 2019.

Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce chief executive Ali Boswijk said the increase in holidaymakers in Nelson was noticeable, particularly on Tuesday when it rained and “town was packed”.

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“Auckland people are in town at the moment which is nice.”

Hospitality in Nelson was quiet until the week leading up to Christmas, when there had been a definite lift in business, Boswijk said.

Air NZ said that between December 15 and January 31 Nelson was its busiest regional airport with more than 70,000 people being flown in and out of the region. In the same period, Air NZ also had 20,335 travellers flying into Blenheim.

Accommodation website Bookabach’s houses were fully booked out in the Nelson region from January 2 to 8, while from January 9 to 15 it had 25 homes – or five per cent of its stock – left as of Wednesday.

Shoppers packed the Richmond Market Day in Queen St on Thursday.

Nelson was normally busy with domestic visitors at this time of year, particularly holidaymakers from Christchurch and Auckland, Boswijk said, while international visitors traditionally followed in January and February, helping extend out summer trading right through until Easter.

However, this year it would be “a much shorter season” because there wouldn’t be that lift from international visitors, Boswijk said.

“It has been that international visitation that has taken people through. That clearly won’t be here.

“Everyone’s probably bracing themselves for that.”

The shorter trading season meant businesses had to “make hay” now while there were domestic visitors, she said.

Thomas’s Department Store co-owner Tim Thomas said the Blenheim store saw an increase in sales this Boxing Day.

Greg Hall, owner of #Overflow and #Fresh in Blenheim, says stock shortages will make next year challenging.

While last year’s Boxing Day was a good day for the store, this year's exceeded that, with its average spend being a lot higher than it has been for five years.

“It felt like there were the same amount of people in town, but the amount of spending was up from last year.”

Thomas added there seemed to be a lot of visitors in Blenheim from “up north,” which he thought had helped the sales average.

Overflow and #Fresh owner Greg Hall said while Boxing Day was busy, Christmas Eve was busier for the footwear and apparel store - something that was different from the norm.

Hall said 2022 was going to be an interesting year for the company, due to stock shortages.

“It’s going to be a lot more challenging, not that this year has been easy.”

Hall said there were blockages in the supply chain. In China, factories had shut down, causing a backlog of products. There were also not as many flights “zooming around” as usual, and the ports were backed up.

“In 2022 people are going to be facing stock shortages and price increases.”

Uniquely Nelson manager Simon Duffy said while economic activity wasn’t “like the old days”, shops and cafes appeared busier this week.

Buoyed by the rise in holidaymakers in Nelson, businesses Duffy spoke to this week were “upbeat”.

“There was a good vibe – a bit like the old days,” he said. “Long may it continue.”

Hospitality was the sector that needed the biggest support, he said. Prior to Christmas there was “a bit of unease or caution” from people because of the pandemic, causing them to be hesitant in visiting restaurants and cafes, but now the hospitality sector seemed to be “steadily busy”.

While Nelson normally benefited from international visitors in mid-January and February, he hoped there would be a second domestic wave of holidaymakers into Nelson over that period to carry businesses through.

Further into the new year, it was uncertain what visitor numbers and economic activity would be like, Duffy said.

“What that’s like in six months to one year, who knows?”