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Waikato Business News July/August 2018

Waikato Business News has for a quarter of a century been the voice of the region’s business community, a business community with a very real commitment to innovation and an ethos of co-operation.

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10 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS <strong>July</strong>/<strong>August</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />

<strong>Waikato</strong> riding<br />

tourism wave<br />

The visitor boom is seeing tourism operator<br />

Waitomo Adventures go full steam ahead,<br />

with a new adventure centre and day spa<br />

to open in December, followed by further<br />

development of a 23 ha site.<br />

By RICHARD WALKER<br />

That’s on the back of<br />

its interactive Troll<br />

Cave, which is aimed at<br />

youngsters along with corporate<br />

team building and opened<br />

last year.<br />

Waitomo Adventures<br />

founder Nick Andreef says the<br />

three-storey adventure centre<br />

is stage one of a bigger complex<br />

with the working name of<br />

Waitomo Rock.<br />

Progress Waitomo, a joint<br />

Waitomo Adventures founder Nick Andreef with the<br />

animatronic troll that features in the Troll Cave.<br />

venture between the Andreef<br />

and Juno families, also has<br />

the resource consents for a<br />

new bar, restaurant and function<br />

centre with a 500-person<br />

capacity.<br />

Also in the pipeline for the<br />

site is a 70m bungy tower on a<br />

restored wetland.<br />

It’s a huge vote of confidence<br />

in the future of tourism,<br />

and one that builds on 10<br />

years of growing visitor numbers<br />

in Waitomo.<br />

“There’s an estimated<br />

increase from 450,000 to more<br />

than 700,000 tourists coming<br />

through Waitomo village now.<br />

It’s massive,” says Nick.<br />

That growth is reflected<br />

across the region, with visitor<br />

spend growing by six percent<br />

in the year ending May <strong>2018</strong>,<br />

pushing it up to $1.542 billion,<br />

according to figures from<br />

the Ministry of <strong>Business</strong>,<br />

Innovation and Employment.<br />

Of that, domestic tourists<br />

spent $1.156 billion while<br />

international visitors spent<br />

$365 million.<br />

<strong>Waikato</strong> has the fifth highest<br />

share of the national market,<br />

ahead of Rotorua and<br />

Bay of Plenty. Hamilton and<br />

<strong>Waikato</strong> Tourism chief executive<br />

Jason Dawson says<br />

one of the growth areas is<br />

international visitors staying<br />

overnight in the region for<br />

their first or final night, given<br />

<strong>Waikato</strong>’s proximity to Auckland<br />

International Airport.<br />

“It is far cheaper and more<br />

affordable to start in <strong>Waikato</strong>.<br />

We’ve pushed that in international<br />

markets for many years,<br />

and the last year it’s starting<br />

to pay off.”<br />

The region’s big three<br />

attractions are Waitomo, Hobbiton<br />

and Hamilton Gardens,<br />

and the challenge facing the<br />

industry is to broaden the<br />

appeal for tourists and keep<br />

them staying longer.<br />

Jason points to a developing<br />

range of options including<br />

River Riders, trails like the<br />

Hauraki Rail Trail and Sanctuary<br />

Mountain Maungatautari.<br />

He says they meet a key<br />

requirement of modern travellers:<br />

authenticity. “Authentic<br />

is Sanctuary Mountain - you<br />

get to see New Zealand wildlife<br />

up close and personal.”<br />

That idea informs the<br />

agency’s approach to development<br />

in the area, building on<br />

a plan which includes a focus<br />

on the <strong>Waikato</strong> River, regional<br />

events, and <strong>Waikato</strong> as home<br />

of Kiingitanga.<br />

“It is about looking at our<br />

current assets - we have a lot<br />

of assets here - and improving<br />

the story telling around them,”<br />

Jason says. “The Māori aspect<br />

is significant, it is a selling<br />

point.”<br />

Visitor boost for Hamilton eatery<br />

Lonely Planet helped put<br />

Vietnamese eatery Banh<br />

Mi Caphe on the map.<br />

The cafe opened on Victoria St<br />

in 2013 with what was then a<br />

rare cuisine for the Hamilton<br />

scene. It took a while to establish<br />

itself, but then along came<br />

Lonely Planet. The reviewer<br />

had obviously enjoyed their<br />

meal at the eatery, and written<br />

it up accordingly. The cafe has<br />

never looked back.<br />

Ann Chaimontree, who<br />

co-owns the restaurant with<br />

her husband Pat, remembers<br />

the time. “Since that we’ve<br />

seen a massive surge in tourists<br />

coming to try our food, mainly<br />

the French and the German - I<br />

think because they’re more<br />

aware of Vietnamese food.”<br />

Since then the cafe has<br />

shifted to a larger, more<br />

upmarket site beside Victoria<br />

on the River, and the backpacker<br />

trade brought in by<br />

Lonely Planet has become less<br />

significant. It made Lonely<br />

Planet twice, with its welcome<br />

boost to business, and Ann<br />

also points to the value of Trip<br />

Advisor for cafes and restaurants.<br />

She says Hobbiton is often<br />

mentioned by tourists dining<br />

at the cafe. “A lot of them,<br />

are really into the Lord of the<br />

Rings.”<br />

Hamilton Gardens is also<br />

big for the out-of-town visitors<br />

they talk to. “We see that<br />

on a Saturday, if they’re coming<br />

from Auckland they tend<br />

to stop here and have lunch,<br />

and then they’ll go off to the<br />

Gardens before carrying on<br />

elsewhere.”<br />

Theirs is an example of<br />

the many ways in which tourism<br />

spreads out through an<br />

economy, beyond the obvious<br />

drawcards and destinations.<br />

In turn, it reinforces the value<br />

of such establishments for the<br />

tourism industry.<br />

Ann and Pat Chaimontree at their<br />

Banh Mi Caphe in central Hamilton.<br />

Photo: Sarah Brook, The Image Workshop<br />

Artist's impression of the SkyGarden, a 70 metre bungy tower planned for Waitomo.<br />

One example is the current<br />

piloting of battle re-enactments<br />

at Rangiriri by local iwi,<br />

supported by Hamilton and<br />

<strong>Waikato</strong> Tourism. Another is<br />

the tours by Tahi Rangiawha<br />

of Waireinga-Bridal Veil Falls<br />

in summer. “He takes them on<br />

a guided tour, talks about the<br />

medicinal values of the flora<br />

and fauna you see there, there<br />

is some reenactment, they do<br />

waiata at night,” Jason says.<br />

“He’s looking at other things<br />

like waka tours on our rivers<br />

as well.”<br />

It’s not only operators who<br />

benefit from the growth, it’s<br />

the likes of cafes, restaurants<br />

and bus transport companies<br />

as well, Jason says. He points<br />

to Raglan, where 40 percent<br />

of the housing stock is holiday<br />

homes.<br />

Meanwhile, commercial<br />

guest nights have grown significantly<br />

for the region over<br />

the last five years.<br />

“But what we’re seeing<br />

is it’s starting to plateau, and<br />

that’s down to availability. We<br />

need two [more hotels] here<br />

in Hamilton, we need one<br />

in Waitomo, we need one in<br />

Raglan, one in Matamata. We<br />

need some good, large, high<br />

quality accommodation.”<br />

Nick Andreef also points<br />

to the need for good quality<br />

accommodation as a way of<br />

keeping visitors. He believes<br />

Waitomo has failed to capitalise<br />

on the opportunities from<br />

its growth, with just an estimated<br />

17.5 percent of visitors<br />

to the area staying overnight.<br />

The village lacks high<br />

quality accommodation for<br />

the independent travellers that<br />

Nick believes are important<br />

for the tourism business in<br />

New Zealand.<br />

“Think about a couple that<br />

have just given me $1200 to<br />

go caving for the day.<br />

“They’ve often had what<br />

they describe as the best<br />

experience that they had in<br />

New Zealand or even in their<br />

lives. They’ve been abseiling<br />

hundreds of metres, they’ve<br />

been swimming along raging<br />

underground rivers, they’ve<br />

been leaping off things and<br />

climbing things, and they’re<br />

completely knackered.<br />

They’re hungry, and all they<br />

want is to have a nice celebratory<br />

glass and put their heads<br />

down on a very nice pillow,<br />

but they will not stay at a<br />

backpackers.<br />

“So they get in their cars<br />

and they drive off to Rotorua.<br />

“We lose them here in<br />

<strong>Waikato</strong> and it’s only because<br />

we don’t have the right sort of<br />

upmarket accommodation.”<br />

He says that could come in<br />

different forms, from a hotel<br />

to glamping or self-contained<br />

chalets.<br />

“We’ve done the numbers<br />

on this. A five percent increase<br />

would result in a brand new<br />

100 room hotel being 60 percent<br />

full. So there’s a massive<br />

opportunity here for a<br />

hotel. The challenge is that<br />

we’re seasonal. Whereas we<br />

get about 3000 tourists a day<br />

in summer, it drops down to<br />

about 800 or 900 in the bottom<br />

of winter.<br />

“That’s what a number of<br />

different entities have been<br />

struggling with.”<br />

The tourism mix at<br />

Waitomo, at 80 percent international<br />

visitors, is very different<br />

from other parts of<br />

<strong>Waikato</strong>. Of the tourists taking<br />

in the “golden triangle” -<br />

Auckland, Waitomo, Rotorua<br />

- 85 percent head to Waitomo<br />

first. The challenge then is to<br />

encourage them to stay longer<br />

in the region.

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