16 June 2009

For immediate release

Museums and galleries are in the top three activities for visitors to Taranaki

Enjoying our parks and public gardens, visiting museums and galleries and going tramping and climbing are the three top activities for visitors to Taranaki according to a recent visitor survey.

The survey was conducted in May and asked a sample of 188 visitors at Puke Ariki’s i-SITE visitor centre a range of questions about where they were from, how long they were in Taranaki and what activities they will be doing here.

“Our unique offering of a combined museum, library and visitor centre at Puke Ariki continues to rate highly on visitor to-do lists along side internationally renowned activities such as the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and our gardens and parks,” says Puke Ariki Business Development Manager Graeme Sykes.

“And more than 94 per cent said they were satisfied or more than satisfied with the information available and customer service received at our i-SITE, so we’re very pleased with that result too.”

Key highlights from the survey:

Most visitors surveyed were from New Zealand (33 per cent) followed by Europe (18 per cent), Taranaki (14 per cent), Australia (14 per cent), United Kingdom (6 per cent), North America (4 per cent), Asia (4 per cent).

Of visitors from New Zealand, majority were from Taranaki (37 per cent) followed by Auckland (17 per cent), Wellington (13 per cent), the South Island (13 percent) Waikato (5 per cent), Wanganui (3 per cent).

While in Taranaki the top activities include visiting gardens and parks (21 percent), visiting museums and galleries (18 percent), climbing and tramping (13 percent), shopping (11 per cent), enjoying adventure activities (7 percent) and visiting family and friends (6 percent).  

Their reasons for visiting the New Plymouth i-SITE include to get tourist information (41 per cent), visit Puke Ariki museum and library (14 per cent), make a general enquiry (13 per cent) and to ask for directions (9 per cent).

The visitor survey is conducted twice a year by the Council’s Customer First Team and monitors seasonal tourist patterns through the i-SITE. There are around 55,000 tourist enquiries at the New Plymouth i-SITE each year.

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