Economic impact of Nelson Airport astounding
The direct economic impact of Nelson Airport is about $63 million per year. We recently commissioned an economist to research and report on the financial impact Nelson Airport has for the region. The report measured the dollars that were generated or came into the region that would not be occurring if the airport wasn’t here. It took into account such things as the contribution businesses such as Air Nelson and Helicopters NZ made, and extended down to the taxi fares from the airport and rental car hire income. It did not take into account indirect impact of such things as tourist beds as there is no easy way to establish that the visitors came via the airport. We were astounded at the outcome.Such information can be used to continue to measure growth and identify the areas that are performing well in the region. It can also be used to identify and rank Nelson’s position as an aviation centre and to benchmark the size of the industry here in relation to encouraging further development and investment in the region. It is also important that this sort of information is available to politicians,both local and national, when considering the impact of any proposal,legislation or initiative that may impact on airport operations. Further research is being undertaken to extend the report to cover the whole of the Nelson Tasman region and also to establish a value on the same basis for the Marlborough region