Addressing Marlborough seasonality

Visitor volume driven by seasonal changes are a common problem for many if not most destinations.

Fluctuation caused by varied year–round visitor spend can have significant impacts on:

• Quality of product delivery

• Availability of all experiences at any time of the year

• Staff retention and subsequent HR costs

• Ability for destination to always deliver on the brand promise

• Depth of choice for visitor experience options

• Utilisation and subsequent return on capital invested in tourism plant – coaches, hotels, touring boats, cellar doors etc

• Wider long–term return on investment for tourism industry investors

• Secondary visitor service suppliers and subsequent range of year–round services that the local community can enjoy

• Market type and origin mix and utilisation of market specific products Clearly New Zealand has four seasons and the ability for our many outdoor activities to operate may be directly affected by seasonal weather.

Also, given that many of our international market guests travel from the northern hemisphere, the desire to avoid the northern winter for warmer parts of the world also has a key part to play in seasonality. Lastly domestic kiwis are driven seasonally by public holidays, sports, niche season sports like skiing or sailing, and family make up (school holidays, visiting friends and relations – VFR).

Marlborough has been very fortunate to maintain an even balance of domestic and international visitation prior to Covid– 19 pandemic.

This balance has allowed for reduced seasonality as compared to some other regions, with the wider non tourism economy supporting even year round corporate, business and conference visitation.

However, as a region of great wines and abounding water–based sports, the summer season both for domestic and international has remained the key time of visitation.

Marlborough needs to develop alternative seasonal strengths that drive off season business.

Key potential drivers of off–season visitation Key Strengths

• Development of more indoors commercialised visitor attractions of national significance • ASB Theatre and Marlborough Events Centre

• Development of key leisure focused events during shoulder seasons • Located on SH1 – year–round domestic traffic flows

• Development of more business events and conferences in the shoulder and winter season • Blenheim is a small easily accessible town with close accommodation

• Winter team sports and education facilities • Less seasonal workforce than in some places

• Niche specialisation services to drive winter education groups • Warmer general climate – boating often possible year round

• Regional transport, accommodation, and attraction packaging to create desire, price point and seasonal differentiation • Domestic airport

• Potential two season strategy – e.g., like Queenstown or Wanaka • Year–round aviation weather stability

• Winter warmer strategies – e.g., mulled wine, indoor events, fireside, food, music • Possible ski connection to Rainbow Ski Area

• Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre all weather offering

Key Concerns Key Opportunities

• Traditional focus on wine & Marlborough Sounds – summer focus to brand • Build new indoor visitor attractions

• Central NZ but a little hard to get too – outside two hours travel easy drive radius • Build life in inner Blenheim year round

• Perception of rough weather in Cook Strait • Market more aggressively into the conference and business market pre & post event activities

• Lack of high–quality indoor visitor options • Winter marketing – price point, added value, packaging gateway airline and ferry options with accommodation and attractions

• Small towns, dark, perception as not safe, lacking life • Build a more winter focused wine offering

• Closure of key attractions over winter e.g. accomodation on Queen Charlotte track reduces option and walk availability • Promote and build a more winter focused Marlborough Sounds product

• Develop winter focused events, winter sports, indoor cosy, niche

• Development of new role – “Winter marketing group/ manager”

• Collective & cooperative resource use between tourism industry sectors – job share

• Multi skill training of locals – seasonal staff retention

• Summer/ winter infrastructure alignment/redeployment plans

• Collective wider regional marketing to leverage complementary strengths and extend dollar spend

• Target southern South Island markets – winter warmer location

Middlehurst Station