Guest nights hit 40 million a year for the first time
Monday, 12 November 2018
Guests spent more than 40 million nights in short term commercial accommodation for the year ended September, setting a new record.
Stats NZ said guest nights in the Queenstown–Lakes district were now approaching levels seen in central Auckland, and the resort town had experienced the largest growth of all centres since national guest nights reached 30m in 2004.
Accommodation statistics manager Melissa McKenzie said nights spent in motels dipped during the global financial crisis, and since then hotels had consistently been the largest provider of short-term commercial guest nights accounting for more than a third of all nights in 2018.
For September total guest nights were up almost 3 per cent on last year with the biggest rise in Auckland, which was was up 6 per cent to 585,000, while Queenstown was close behind at 439,000.
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The figures are based on the accommodation survey which collects data for guests staying in hotels, motels, backpackers, and holiday parks, but it does not include Airbnb, bed and breakfasts and holiday homes.
The popularity of Queenstown has also shown up in Tourism Industry Aotearoa's (TIA) annual hotel survey for the 12 month period, with occupancy sitting at 82 per cent.
The resort's revenue per available room was $197, compared with $171 in Auckland.
TIA chief executive Chris Roberts said that 12 months ago there was concern about lack of infrastructure, particularly visitor accommodation, but as international arrivals had cooled and new hotels had come online, that picture had changed.
The TIA survey found that occupancy and revenue in Auckland and Wellington had both dropped, but Christchurch was holding its own, despite experiencing the biggest increase in hotel rooms.
'Queenstown is busy but not full - there are rooms available - but returns have continued to increase and are now higher than Auckland, making them the highest in the country.'
Roberts said Auckland potentially had 4000 new hotel rooms opening over the next five years and 'it will be a challenge to absorb all that additional stock.'