Collingwood businesses promote small town to domestic tourist market

Collingwood businesses have formed a working group aimed at attracting more domestic tourists for longer periods.

Member Anton Donaldson said Western Golden Bay had a lot on offer, but tourists often only travelled to the area for day trips.

The group was aiming to promote Collingwood as a “destination” with a wide range of accommodation options and activities.

They included horse riding, gold panning and fishing trips, bird-watching, painting and weaving workshops, art tours, eco scenic tours, art and woodwork studios, cafés and eateries, historic landmarks and exploring nature, including the long and varied coastline.

“We have so many people drive past on their way to Farewell Spit or Wharariki Beach, and then they turn around and drive back to wherever they’re staying [not in Collingwood],” Donaldson said.

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Due to Covid-19 impacts on tourist operators, he said many Collingwood businesses had been changing how they worked in order to target the domestic market instead.

For example, his own fly-fishing guide business had lost 100 per cent of its customers due to the lockdown, as the market was mainly targeted at tourists from the United States.

Donaldson, who also co-owns the new Collingwood gift shop The Flyfisher’s Wife with his partner, was working to reinvent his fishing business.

He would start offering regular fishing guided trips out in the bay from September.

Several other start-up businesses aimed at the domestic market, including one offering art and distillery tours, were hoping to get off the ground soon.

Nelson Tasman’s visitor sector is the region’s hardest hit industry with a long road to recovery expected ahead.

However, in a recent Nelson Regional Development Agency survey of 832 residents from Nelson Tasman, 70 per cent of respondents said that Golden Bay was on the top of their list as a destination they would visit in the near future.

Cape Farewell Horse Treks co-owner James Forbes said business was “completely dead” but they were lucky to not be solely reliant on the income from it.

“We are one of those businesses that’s 85-95 per cent reliant on overseas visitors,” he said.

Collingwood had more outdoor experiences on offer than most people realised, he said.

“When you take the West Coast into the area, there’s miles and miles of exploring. A lot of people come here for day trips but don’t see anything, they all come here for Wharariki and Farewell Spit, but there is so much more to do.”

Follow the group’s new facebook page Destination Collingwood NZ to see what’s on offer in the area.