Falling foreign visitors drag down NZ guest nights

Wednesday 11th July 2012

New Zealand's hotels and motels extended their run of falling guest nights in May, led by a decline in international visitor numbers.

Total guest nights fell 0.3 percent to 1.9 million in May from the same month a year earlier, according to Statistics New Zealand.

The decline came from a 2.7 percent fall in international visitors, to 669,000 guest nights, while domestic guest nights rose 1 percent to 1.2 million.

The international guest night data tallies with figures from Auckland International Airport for May which showed total international passenger movements, stripping out transits, fell 2.9 percent to 500,064 after an easing in services to/from Asia and Australia and the scheduled exit by Qantas on the Auckland - Los Angeles route.

In the North Island, total guest nights fell 1.5 percent to 1.2 million, while the South Island's rose 1.9 percent to 670,000, today's report showed. Nationally, guest nights in hotels and backpacker accommodation remain below pre-earthquake levels, with fewer nights spent in backpackers down 5.8 percent to 16,000 nights.

Holiday park accommodation fell 3.5 percent to 9,000 nights. The number of nights spent in hotels rose 2.1 percent to 5,000.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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