Canterbury guest nights up but Christchurch city still suffering

Wednesday, 12 July 2017

Christchurch accommodation providers hope the reopening of the Adventure Park will help boost occupancy rates in the city.

Canterbury accommodation topped the country by recording an extra 25,000 guest nights in May, but Christchurch city is still scrambling to fill beds.

The latest Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) commercial accommodation survey showed guests nights across New Zealand were up 7 per cent nationally, with Canterbury experiencing the largest increase in numbers.

There were also healthy rises in Bay of Plenty, Auckland and Northland, with the latter up 20 per cent on the previous May.

Nationally, all accommodation types reported increases, with holiday parks up the most at 14.5 per cent.

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SNZ spokeswoman Melissa McKenzie said the Canterbury increase was driven by more stays in the Mackenzie district, and a recovery in Kaikoura where guest nights were down only slightly on the previous May.

She said that was a big improvement on the immediate post-earthquake period when commercial guest nights in Kaikoura dropped 30 to 80 per cent.

'It appears the combination of a slower winter month and construction workers staying in Kaikoura have helped May guest nights recover.'

However, the statistics for Christchurch city, as opposed to the whole region, tell a different story.

They show May occupancy rates in the city have been slowly falling for the last five years, with 45 per cent occupancy recorded this May, down from 50 per cent in 2013.

The average length of stay for Christchurch in May – a little under two days – was also down slightly.

The accommodation survey collects data from hotels, motels, backpacker hostels and holiday parks, but excludes private accommodation rentals such as Airbnb and holiday homes.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa hotel chairman for Canterbury Michael Patterson said hotel occupancy figures for June were looking better.

That was because Christchurch picked up about 300 Lions tour followers unable to get accommodation in Wellington, showing the economic impact of an event of that magnitude.

But occupancy rates remained a worry for the city at least in the short term.

'As an industry we're concerned that the supply of hotels and accommodation coming on may exceed demand, but we're confident that the desirability of Christchurch as a visitor destination will continue to improve.

'There are plenty of accommodation options, but it's whether they choose to come, and we've got to get more reasons for them to come here.

'We so need that multi-use sports arena and we so need the convention centre.'

Patterson said Christchurch was getting sufficient support from Tourism Zealand, which had been encouraging off peak travel to the regions, but the city needed more visitor attractions.

The reopening of the fire-damaged Christchurch Adventure Park scheduled for the coming summer would help, as would the proposed Eden Project for the red zone if it got the go ahead.

The Adventure Park received $2 million from the Government's tourism growth partnership, which helped pay for large private sector projects designed to appeal to visitors.

The fund was disestablished in the 2017 Budget and the money was redirected into a $110m fund focussing on tourism infrastructure such as public toilets.