Nelson Weekly
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Tuesday 10 March 2015
Simplicity Funerals
Paintball needs new site Page 15
Simply respectful. Simply affordable
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‘Tryathlon’ was biggest yet
Page 25
NO STRESS AT TRYATHLON: Ten year old Joshua Butcher of Nayland Primary School, centre, yawns at the start line of the Weetbix Tryathlon at Tahunanui beach on Sunday. More than 1800 kids took part in the event. Full story on page 25. Photo: Monique Bergman.
Tourism helped by sun and cricket Nelson has enjoyed its second-best tourist year on record and the news is expected to get even better once data around tourist numbers in Nelson for the Cricket World Cup are released. Nelson and Tasman had more than 1.25 million “guest nights” in 2014, meaning one night stayed by each tourist in the region. That’s a jump of five per cent from international visitors alone, compared to
the year before. Those extra people have helped fuel spending as well, with Nelson once again topping the country’s spending growth through eftpos provider, Paymark. Last week Paymark announced a 10 per cent increase for Nelson for the month of February, the highest in the country. Much of that growth has been put down to tourists with the accommodation and hospitality sectors seeing the biggest jump.
Andrew Board Editor
andrew@nelsonweekly.co.nz Nelson Tasman Tourism chief executive, Lynda Keene, says a sunny summer and the world cup have both had a part to play in the good figures. “We won’t have January and February
commercial accommodation figures until mid-April but certainly the year-end guest nights 31 December 2014, show the season kicked off really well. I do anticipate the January and February figures to show growth compared to previous year.” She says the return of visitors from “traditional markets” like UK, Germany, USA
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