{"id":260546,"date":"2026-01-31T05:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T05:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/260546\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T05:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T05:55:11","slug":"mount-maunganui-landslide-businesses-plead-for-customers-to-support-them-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/260546\/","title":{"rendered":"Mount Maunganui landslide: Businesses plead for customers to support them"},"content":{"rendered":"

One main street retail worker said some people believed the whole Mount Maunganui suburb was closed, even though the cordon only included Mauao and the area around the base.<\/p>\n

\"BouquetsBouquets and tributes at the Mount Maunganui landslide cordon. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n

Because of this, the Mount Maunganui main street \u2013 usually packed during the peak summer season \u2013 had been eerily quiet, businesses say. <\/p>\n

However, the cruise ship schedule brought hope.<\/p>\n

Eight cruise ships were due to arrive within the next week, plus the Spirit of New Zealand, and the suburb was expected to host about 445,000 domestic visitors and 100,000 international visitors this month.<\/p>\n

Tourists were being encouraged to stay in the township and support local businesses.<\/p>\n

\" Mount Made manager Matt Oliver. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n

Mount Made manager Matt Oliver said the foot traffic around his store had dropped by \u201cat least 10%\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMorale is definitely down. Everyone felt it in some sort of way. It\u2019s pretty sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most customers were coming in and talking about the event, commenting on how tragic it was, he said.<\/p>\n

\" Gigi\u2019s manager Tessa Crean. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n

Gigi\u2019s manager Tessa Crean also said she had noticed a drop in foot traffic and 30% fewer customers, adding that long weekends were usually busy. <\/p>\n

The disaster happened five days before Auckland Anniversary Weekend. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of very quiet periods.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Tree Bakery Cafe owner Chandara Lon said Saturday was relatively busy because people were buying for those working at the scene. <\/p>\n

\" One Tree Bakery Cafe owner Chandara Lon. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n

But business was slow on Sunday and Monday.<\/p>\n

He said he had ordered a lot of stock to make up for the busyness he expected from the long weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and my wife were just standing looking at each other, and not even one or two customers came in.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it was worse than what he would usually see in the quieter winter months.<\/p>\n

Lon, who took over the business three years ago, said he had never seen it like this.<\/p>\n

He was relying on cruise ship tourists and locals to get back to normal.<\/p>\n

\" Blondie Diner owner Bradley Jack Dellar. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n

Blondie Diner owner Bradley Jack Dellar said it had been \u201cmorbid\u201d and quiet. <\/p>\n

It was \u201cway worse\u201d for businesses closer to Mauao within the cordon area. <\/p>\n

Dellar said January was usually busy, especially during school holidays. <\/p>\n

He said it should be at least three-quarters full for the lunchtime rush. However, on Wednesday, there were few customers. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople aren\u2019t going down here, people aren\u2019t coming into town. It sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA crowd of roughly 80 stood at Pilot Bay, facing Mauao as How Great Thou Art played after a minutes silence was held, one week on from the deadly landslide in Mount Maunganui. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n

Ingrid Otene, a main street retail store worker, said she was worried about the narrative around \u201cthe Mount\u201d being closed.<\/p>\n

Many people believed the whole of Mount Maunganui was closed, they were avoiding the area, not knowing that only Mauao was closed, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s why a lot of people stay home.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe if people change that narrative, it will be apparent that the beaches are still there and other attractions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mount Maunganui Crate Clothing manager Corey Richards said Sunday was a good day business-wise, but Monday was slow.<\/p>\n

He said it had been quiet since the tragedy and that there had been less foot traffic than last summer.<\/p>\n

International tourists, supporting locals<\/p>\n

Mount Mainstreet chairperson Jo Veale said the closure of Mauao would have a huge impact on international tourists and their plans here.<\/p>\n

\" Mount Mainstreet chairperson Jo Veale. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n

Veale said their message to international tourists was that Mount Maunganui was open and would stay open. <\/p>\n

She explained the importance of keeping businesses open and \u201callowing motion through grief\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a fine line. On one hand, things stopped for a while, and now it\u2019s about restarting sensitively.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf locals support the main street, that creates vibrancy. If people want to live and work here, we have a strong city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tourism Bay of Plenty general manager Oscar Nathan said the immediate impact of the Mauao slip on tourism had been one of shock and deep concern. <\/p>\n

\"TourismTourism Bay of Plenty general manager Oscar Nathan. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to note that virtually all the Mount Maunganui retail and business district, except for the area near the base of Mauao, is continuing to operate as normally as possible, as are those in the wider Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some parks and reserves had been closed.<\/p>\n

He said Tourism Bay of Plenty had communicated with cruise lines about the emotional impact on the community and advice on how passengers may need to change their onshore plans. <\/p>\n

\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n

Ayla Yeoman<\/a> is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based in Tauranga. She holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in communications, politics and international relations from the University of Auckland, and has been a journalist since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One main street retail worker said some people believed the whole Mount Maunganui suburb was closed, even though…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1443,10166,10709,4381,38402,6541,2082,305,42,56662,3120,1446,17707,13233,43,73136,116821,17145,6926,5424,1886,2846,210,61,40,38,41,39,3946,23644],"class_list":["post-260546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-about","tag-businesses","tag-concerns","tag-customers","tag-drop","tag-foot","tag-for","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-landslide","tag-main","tag-making","tag-maunganui","tag-mount","tag-news","tag-noticed","tag-plead","tag-raising","tag-season","tag-street","tag-support","tag-them","tag-through","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-traffic","tag-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}