NZ guest nights rise in June, snapping 5 months of declines

NZ guest nights rise in June, snapping 5 months of declines

By Hannah Lynch

Aug. 10 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand guest nights rose in June, snapping five months of declines, led by an increase in domestic guest nights.

Total guest nights rose 4 percent to 1.8 million in June from the same month a year earlier, according to Statistics New Zealand. The rise came from an 8.8 percent gain in domestic guest nights to 1.7 million, while international guest nights rose 3.9 percent to 1 million.

"Domestic guest nights drove the overall increase, with international guest nights rising to a lesser extent," Blair Cardno, industry and labour statistics manager, said in a statement. "Most of the national rise occurred in the North Island, particularly in Auckland, with hotels showing a strong increase."

North Island guest nights rose 4.5 percent compared to June last year, led by a 12.9 percent increase in Auckland to 401,000 nights. Guest nights in the South Island rose by 3.4 percent to 611,000. The trend remains "relatively flat" in the South Island largely due to last year's Canterbury earthquake, the government department said.

Guest nights rose across all accommodation types, led by an 8.2 percent increase in hotels to 976,000 compared to a month earlier. The number of nights spent at hotels has increased 5.3 percent since a recent low point in December.

Nationally, the number of nights spent in motels rose 4.8 percent to 917,000, holiday parks increased 2.5 percent to 543,000 and backpacker accommodation advanced 0.5 percent to 343,000.

(BusinessDesk)

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