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Tourism Electronic Card Transaction spend for August 2021 released

October 06, 2021

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 TECT spend in the year-ended August 2021 was up 27% from 2020

Domestic tourism electronic card transaction (TECT) spend was up 27% in the year-ended August 2021 compared to the year-ended August 2020. Domestic TECT spend was also up 17% on pre-COVID levels in the year-ended August 2019. While the year-on-year change showed an increase, monthly domestic spend showed an opposite trend. Monthly domestic TECT spend for August 2021 was down 9% on August 2020. Due to Alert Level 4 being in place for nearly half the month, domestic TECT spend was down 46% on the previous month (July 2021).

As expected with the border closure, international spend in the year-ended August 2021 was down on previous years. Spend was down 64% on 2020 and 72% down on 2019. International spend in August 2021 saw a 2% increase on August 2020.

All regions saw strong annual growth in domestic spend, but monthly spend fell

Domestic TECT spend increased in all regions in the year-ended August 2021 compared with the year-ended August 2020 (as shown in Table 1). All regions also saw growth in Domestic TECT spend compared with the same period in 2019.

Table 1: Percentage change in domestic tourism electronic card spend for the year to August 2021 compared to previous years

Region

Percent change in domestic spend from Year to August-2020

Percent change in domestic spend from Year to August-2019

Tasman

51%

39%

West Coast

45%

42%

Marlborough

45%

36%

Nelson

39%

24%

Otago

37%

35%

The impact of Alert Level 4 which took effect in mid-August was reflected in double-digit decline in the domestic TECT spend for all regions for August 2021, compared to August 2020 and August 2019 (as shown in Table 2). In contrast, Auckland saw domestic spend increase by 21% in August 2021, compared to last year. This was due to Auckland also being in Alert Level 3 for most of August 2020.

Table 2: Percentage change in domestic tourism electronic card spend for the month August 2021 compared to previous years

Region

Percent change in domestic spend from August-2020

Percent change in domestic spend from August-2019

Auckland

21%

-32%

West Coast

-35%

-7%

Nelson

-31%

-24%

Hawke’s Bay

-28%

-17%

Canterbury

-28%

-19%

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.

Caution in using the TECT data

We recommend users do not add domestic and international totals together. They should be used separately. This is due to electronic card transactions (ECTs) in each market representing a different proportion of total tourism spend, meaning they are not additive. More information can be found here.

We have included the TECTs in the new Tourism Evidence and Insights Centre (TEIC)

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: