Guest nights fall in March as Easter moves

Guest nights fall in March as Easter moves – Media release

10 May 2017

Guest nights in March 2017 dropped 3.1 percent compared with March 2016, as Easter moved from March last year to April this year, Stats NZ said today. The Easter effect was most noticeable in domestic guest nights, which decreased 5.6 percent compared with the same month last year. This followed decreases in domestic guest nights in four of the last six months compared with the same month last year.

For the first time since October 2013, international guest nights did not increase from the same month of the previous year. The trend for international guest nights is decreasing.

"The decline in total guest nights was particularly noticeable for holiday parks," business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly said. "Moving Easter holidays combined with relatively poor weather saw holiday park guest nights decrease 16 percent compared with last March."

Falls in South Island and Canterbury guest nights were affected by ongoing impacts from the Kaikōura earthquakes. Guest nights in Kaikōura were 52 percent lower than in March 2016.

The Accommodation Survey collects data for guests staying in commercial hotels, motels, backpacker accommodation, and holiday parks in New Zealand each month. Private accommodation is excluded.

See Accommodation Survey: March 2017 for more information on monthly accommodation statistics.

Ends

For more information about these statistics:
• Visit Accommodation Survey: March 2017
• See CSV files for download
• Open the attached files
AccommodationSurveyMar17.pdf

asmar17tables.xlsx

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