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Domestic and international visitors spent $22.1 million in the Gore District between April and June this year.
The statistic was part of the Community Compass Quarterly Report prepared by Dot Loves Data included in a report prepared by Community Lifestyle Services general manager Rex Capil tabled at the council’s community wellbeing committee on Tuesday.
The Community Compass report gives information about a community’s demographics, socio-economic wellbeing, health, housing, accessibility to services, education, employment, economic and environmental measures.
While the Tussock Country Music Festival was held in this quarter, the visitor spend was down 2.87% from the March quarter.
In his report Mr Capil said domestic tourism spending was down slightly compared with the previous year but, "it seems there has been a good bounce back in international tourism".
The number of people on job seeker support benefits increased to 4.4% of the working age population which was up 2.63% on June 2022’s figure.
During the discussion of the report councillor Bronwyn Reid said she liked the range of data provided.
"It’s right across the board and its quite detailed."
One item that caught her attention was the increase in crime rate in Waikaka.
"Rural community at quite a distance from police — interesting statistic."
Waikaka experienced the highest increase in crime from April to June this year of all Gore District communities.
The crime rate in the town has increased about 35%.
However, the town had a crime rate of 11.7 per 10,000 people compared to the rest of the district which had a 24.5 rate, up 7.6% on the March figure.
Nationwide the crime rate is 51.5 per 10,000.
Cr Dickson noted that even though the crime rate was up in Waikaka there was not a corresponding rise in the deprivation index.
The information would be useful during the writing of the new long-term plan, she said.