Taranaki did better than most. The tourism spend in January was $28 million up 13 per cent on January last year. And December’s figures also make good reading – $25m up 2 per cent on December 2019. The year to date expenditure was $211m, down 2 per cent from last year. Not bad considering the length of time the region was in lock down. Even before January’s figures came out the signs were there to indicate it was a bumper month with three concerts attracting 34,000 concert-goers to the TSB Bowl of Brooklands, with about a third of them coming from out of town. Over these weekends there was literally no room at the inn. And then Americarna brought visitors and a buzz to the region.