High domestic airfares are being blamed for a nearly 10% drop in tourist spending in Central Otago in the past year.
However, Central Otago district councillors heard yesterday that encouraging Australians arriving on direct flights from the Gold Coast to visit could improve visitor numbers.
Central Otago District Council head of destination Antz Longman, in his six monthly update, said an Infometrics regional economic profile showed total visitor spending was down 9.5% for the district compared with the previous year.
High domestic airfares and a range of economic pressures were to blame for the softening of the market.
The report said international visitors contributed 20.3% of tourist spending in Central Otago, while domestic visitors contributed 79.7% in 2025.
By comparison, domestic travellers represented 62.9% of visitor spending in the tourism sector nationally.
A grant of $373,000 had just been confirmed from MBIE for a campaign in the first quarter of next year into the Queensland Gold Coast to encourage people arriving in Dunedin on Jetstar flights to visit Central Otago.
The campaign would focus on food and hospitality, Mr Longman said.
Infometrics data showed the tourism sector employed an average of 1585 people in Central Otago in the year ending March 2024.
That amounted to 10.6% of Central Otago District’s total employment in 2024 as compared to 6.7% in 2000.
Tourism Central Otago’s commissioned ongoing market perception research showed of the 71% of New Zealanders who travelled domestically in the past year only 7% visited Central Otago. During the two years to June 2023, during Covid, 10% of travelling Kiwis visited Central Otago.
In contrast, 12% of Australians who travelled to New Zealand in the past year visited Central Otago on their trip and 6% stayed overnight. Both proportions were significant increases on the previous year of 6% and 2% respectively.
However, the report says 34% of New Zealanders intending to travel within the country in the next year say they were likely to visit the region.
Mr Longman said new developments were generating positive interest with people looking to invest in accommodation developments in Central Otago, encouraged by the cycle trails and the under-construction Cromwell memorial hall and events centre.
Naseby had featured in the media as far away as South Korea following the Dark Sky recognition, which was an amazing effort by that community, he said.
Tourism and hospitality Minister Louise Upston was keen to get international visitor numbers back up to 2019 numbers — 3.9 million international visitors by the end of next year — which was a very ambitious target, Mr Longman said.
