Overview of Taupo District
Taupō District’s economy has been hit hard by COVID-19’s impact on tourism. Infometrics provisional estimates show that the district’s economy contracted by 2.5% over the year to June 2020, compared to a national decline of 2.1%. The situation for Taupō is worse on a
quarterly basis, with activity in the June 2020 quarter 12.4% lower than the June 2019 quarter.
Consumer spending in the district was down 1.3% over the year to June 2020, and down 22% in the June 2020 quarter compared to the June 2019 quarter. This reflects the loss of international tourists since March and loss of domestic tourists during lockdown. Pivoting
to attract domestic tourists will be essential for Taupō while New Zealand’s border stay closed. Marketview spending data for the month of July is promising, showing that spending in Taupō during the July school holidays was about 18% higher than the same period last
year.
The number of people receiving Jobseeker Support in Taupō has increased by 21% over the year to June 2020, compared to 19.0% nationally, over the year to June 2020. The Infometrics Local Economic Insights Dashboard (LEI) shows that in the month of June 2020, there were 1,451 Jobseeker Support recipients and 66 COVID-19 Income Relief Payment recipients in the district. At the same time last year there were 977 Jobseeker Support recipients.
Taupō’s robust primary sector is help protecting it from some of the negative consequences of the pandemic. Infometrics estimates that the dairy payout to Taupō farmers will reach $355m in the 2019/20 season, an increase of $46m compared to the 2018/19 season.
Although the levels of building consents have come off their recent highs the building sector will be busy for the foreseeable future. Residential consents are running at nearly 50% above the 10-year average and non-residential consents slightly above the 10-year average.