International guest nights fall 5.6% in December

Thursday 10th February 2011

The number of guest nights spent in short term commercial accommodation fell 2.4% in December from a year earlier, due to less business from overseas visitors.

International guest nights dropped 5.6% or 82,000 to 1.4 million in December, while domestic guest nights edged up 5000 or 0.3% to 1.8 million, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said today.

Hardest hit regions were Bay of Plenty, with a fall of 27,000 or 7.8%, Canterbury down 18,000 or 3.5%, and West Coast down 15,000 or 11.1%.

The only regions to record rises were Auckland, with a gain of 25,000 or 5%, and Wellington up 8000 or 3.4%.

It was the fifth consecutive month that Auckland, largely due to hotel stays, had the largest gain compared to year earlier levels, SNZ said.

For the whole of 2010, guest nights were up 0.7% to 32.2m but only four regions recorded gains, with Auckland up 252,000 or 4.6%, Otago up 104,000 or 2.4%, and Bay of Plenty up 100,000 or 3.3%. The biggest annual fall was in Taranaki/Manawatu-Wanganui, which lost 81,000 or 4.7%.

International guest nights for December fell 24,000 or 9% in Canterbury from a year earlier, and were down 18,000 or 20.7% on West Coast, and 12,000 or 9.8% in Bay of Plenty, while Taranaki/Manawatu-Wanganui gained 4000 or 13.6%.

For all of 2010, international guest nights were up 1% from 2009, with Otago up 154,000 or 6.2%, and Bay of Plenty up 86,000 or 8.1%, while West Coast was down 62,000 or 8.7%.

Domestic guest nights in December were up 27,000 or 10.7% in Auckland and up 10,000 or 7% in Wellington, while Taranaki/Manawatu-Wanganui fell 15,000 or 13.2%, Bay of Plenty was down 15,000 or 6.7% and Otago dropped 13,000 or 7.1%.

Annually, domestic guest nights were up 0.5%, with Auckland up 173,000 or 5.8%, while Taranaki/Manawatu-Wanganui fell 76,000 or 5.3%.

NZPA

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