October guest nights fall; hotels are the bright spot
By Jason Krupp
Dec. 10 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand guest nights declined for a second month, with hotels the only bright spot on the
October accommodation survey.
This is the fourth consecutive month hotels were the only accommodation category to show growth in guest nights, up
39,000 to 4.3%, according to figures released by Statistic New Zealand. Motels fell 47,000 or 5.4%, backpackers fell
19,000 or 5.7%, and holiday parks fell 16,000 or 3.8%. Total guest nights fell 1.7% in October, following a 1.2% decline
in the previous
month
"The trend for the total number of guest nights has been slowly declining since October 2009, down 1.1% from the October
2009 peak and 2.3% below the highest month of December 2007," the department said in a statement.
International visitors accounted for 900,000 guest nights in the month, down 5.7% compared to the same month in the
previous year, and 1% softer than the October 2008. This is in line with visitor arrival figures, which showed 2,500
fewer international travelers visited the country in October compared to the same month a year ago.
Eight of the 12 regions saw fewer guest nights in October compared to the same month in the previous year, lead by South
Island which declined 5% to 958,000.
The largest decrease was in Canterbury which fell 4.2%, which the department said was partially due to a 14% drop off in
international visitors after the September earthquake and subsequent aftershocks.
The main increases in guest nights were in Auckland, which rose by 9,000 or 4.2%, Bay of Plenty up 5,000 or 2.3%, and
Northland up 4,000 to 3.6%.
(BusinessDesk)