The tourism industry in Queenstown is booming and growth in visitation and spend is at record levels, even in the context of the thriving New Zealand visitor economy. The Queenstown Trail, for which TRC prepared a ten year strategy in 2015, is undeniably a part of this success, and exactly how to quantify that contribution is the question TRC has been engaged to answer in a project for the Queenstown Trails Trust.
In a separate project, for the Queenstown Mountain Bike Club, the contribution of mountain bike riders to the local economy will also be measured following a year of data collection from trail users. TRC staff have been conducting on ground surveys and meeting with local businesses to supplement the data gathered over the last twelve months.
Both the Queenstown Trails Trust and the Queenstown Mountain Bike club are confident that robust data to demonstrate the impact of the trails will be essential in their efforts to maintain and build the trail network in the future.
