The valuable holiday park sector is devastated to be losing one of its most vital official datasets, Holiday Parks New
Zealand Chief Executive Fergus Brown says.
Holiday parks account for more than a third (36%) of New Zealand’s commercial accommodation capacity, and provide more
than 8 million guest nights a year to both international and domestic travellers.
However, the sector’s ability to measure its contribution to New Zealand’s economy will be severely compromised by the
government decision to stop carrying out the monthly Accommodation Survey (also known as the Commercial Accommodation
Monitor). The survey provides information about commercial accommodation activity at national and regional levels. It
also tracks visitor volumes and movements, providing guest night numbers, capacity, number of establishments and
occupancy rates.
It has been carried out by Stats NZ for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment but is being discontinued
from the end of September, as the result of a dispute between the two agencies.
HPNZ’s 300 member parks are hugely disappointed at the loss of this key data, Mr Brown says.
“The Accommodation Survey information allows holiday parks to benchmark their performance against other similar parks
and regions, and against other types of accommodation. There are no other official sources for this type of
information,” he says.
“Although the Accommodation Survey has some shortcomings, we cannot afford to be left without any measure of the
sector’s performance. On behalf of all HPNZ members, I am calling on Stats NZ and MBIE to reverse this short-sighted
decision.”
ENDS