The latest official tourism data for July is highlighting the success of Visit Ruapehu’s investment in consecutive winter marketing campaigns with strong growth in both domestic and Australian visitor spending.

The Commercial Accommodation Monitor (CAM) data released last week for July is showing a year on year increase of 10.6% to 53,219 guest nights which is supported by Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates (MRTE) data which revealed a 33% increase in spending over July 2017.

Ruapehu Mayor Don Cameron said that this was a really exciting outcome and demonstrated the importance of taking a long term and collaborative investment approach to promoting Ruapehu tourism.

“Both domestic visitor and Australian visitor spending is the strongest it has been for more than ten years,” said Mayor Cameron.

“The success of last year's Australian winter marketing campaigns saw Ruapehu take part in two Tourism NZ led campaigns targeting the Australian skier market for the 2018 season.

The 2017 and 2018 campaigns have been able to capitalize on tourism operator marketing activity together with Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) significant investment in on-mountain facilities greatly lifting the profile of Ruapehu as a winter holiday destination in Australia.

The net result speaks for itself with Australian visitor spending up 39% in July on a year ago.

Domestic visitor spending was also well up by 35% for the same July to July comparison.

These spending increases represent an extra $8.25m into the region’s economy for July alone while overall the total increase in visitor spending for the year ending July 2018 increased by $21m or 11% from $191m to $212m.

Mayor Cameron noted that the value Visit Ruapehu was adding to Ruapehu’s tourism sector can be clearly measured in the cumulative success of these campaigns and other promotional activities.

“Council believes these results validate ratepayer support for Visit Ruapehu and highlighted the importance of taking a long term strategic approach to the development of Ruapehu's tourism sector,” he said.

“A key aspect to Visit Ruapehu’s successful strategy has been to work in partnership with tourism operators, government agencies, and regional and national partners to promote the Ruapehu region.

The success of this strategy is endorsed by RAL with Sales and Marketing General Manager Michelle Caldwell saying that the July data is really quite exceptional.

Mt Ruapehu has seen considerable growth in skier days this year,” said Ms Caldwell.

“After huge year on year growth in June we saw the same in July which is pretty outstanding.

This spending growth has a trickle-down effect through the entire Ruapehu community with visitors spending up large on off mountain activities such as accommodation, dining, retail and other activities,” she said.

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