Credit: Unsplash
This article was produced by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). The content you find below is exclusive to the Tourism Evidence and Insights Centre.
Domestic tourism electronic card transaction (TECT) spend was up 28% in the year-ended July 2021 compared to the year-ended July 2020. It was also up 19% on pre-COVID levels in the year-ended July 2019. Domestic TECT spend for July 2021 was also up 9% on July 2020.
As expected with the border closure, international spend in the year-ended July 2021 was down on previous years. Spend was down 66% on 2020 and 72% down on 2019. However, international spend in July 2021 saw a 52% increase on July 2020 due to quarantine free travel with Australia being possible for some of the month.
The current Level 4 Lockdown began on 18 August, so the impact will be shown in the next TECT release.
Similar to previous releases, spending by Australian card holders has declined year-on-year for July 2021 as well. In the year-ended July 2021 Australian TECT was down 65% compared to the previous year and was down 74% from the year-ended July 2019.
Australian TECT spend in July 2021 was up over 150% compared to the previous year, as there were essentially no international arrivals in July 2020. However, Australian TECT spend was still down 53% on pre-COVID levels July 2019. This was affected by the pause in quarantine free travel with all Australia on 26 June and from 24 July.
Domestic TECT spend increased in all regions in the year-ended July 2021 compared with the year-ended July 2020. All regions also saw growth in Domestic TECT spend compared with the year-ended July 2019. Tasman saw the largest increase in domestic spend in the year-ended July 2021 compared with the previous year, up 54%. This was followed by West Coast (up 52%), Marlborough (up 48%) and Otago (up 43%). The West Coast saw the largest increase in domestic spend when compared to 2019, up 45%. This was followed by Tasman (up 41%), Marlborough and Otago (both up 38%).
The regions with the highest increase in domestic spend, both at the annual and monthly level, also saw some of the largest falls in international spend. They also had a high reliance on the international tourism market pre-COVID-19.
TECT data is now available in the new TEIC in the form of interactive graphs. As well as visualising the data, you also have the ability to customise the graphs and can download them and the related data. Pivot tables are still available in the usual link to the TECT website.
The latest TECT data can be found in the Sustainable Tourism Explorer in the reliance on tourism section of the region area. Breakdowns include: