Economy
The sub-national GDP of the Bay of Plenty region was estimated at US$6.689 billion in 2003, 5% of New Zealand's national GDP.
Agriculture, natural resources and tourism are the major industries in the Bay of Plenty. 96 per cent of the region is defined as 'rural', with 22% of land usage representing farm land and 38% representing nature reserve land. The most common agricultural land uses in the region are horticulture, dairy, grazing and sheep farming. Notable horticultural crops include kiwifruit, apples and avocadoes. The region also has an abundance of coastal, forestry and geothermal resources. Forestry emerged as a vital industry in the 1950s, with Radiata Pine being planted during the early 20th century. Forestry in the region is commercially planted and managed, mostly using planted foreign tree species, and timber is sent to the Port of Tauranga for export. Geothermal activity is a source of tourism in the region, and geothermal energy is emerging as a major regional source of electricity. Tourism is the other notable industry in the Bay of Plenty, accounting for 15% of the region's GDP from March 2000 to 2004. The Bay of Plenty received over 645,000 tourists in 2003, equivalent to one in three visitors to New Zealand coming to the region. Rotorua is a popular destination for international visitors, in particular the surrounding geothermal areas and Māori cultural centres. Tauranga is a popular domestic tourism destination, but becoming very popular internationally.
Overall economic growth in the Bay of Plenty averaged 2.1% between March 2000 and 2004, compared with the national rate of 3.5%, although per capita real GDP growth in the region in the five years to March 2003 matched the national growth rate at an averaged 2.3%. In the 2006 Census, the median annual income in the Bay of Plenty was $22,600, below the national median of $24,400. Further, 45.4% of people aged 15 years or older earned an annual income of less than $20,000, compared with 43.2% of people nationally. Unemployment in the region was at 6.1% of people 15 years or older, compared with 5.1% nationally.
Read more about this topic: Bay Of Plenty Region
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“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical terms.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
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—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)