Queenstown guest nights slightly down for February

Research released yesterday shows a slight overall decrease in guest nights for Queenstown in February 2012 compared to the previous year.

According to Statistics New Zealand’s Commercial Accommodation Monitor (CAM) total Queenstown visitor nights in February 2012 were down 4.8 percent to 226,557 compared with 237,941 the same time last year.

Domestic visitor nights were up for the fourth consecutive month, by 18.5 percent to 68,924 while international guest nights were down 12.3 percent to 157,633 compared to the same month last year.

Destination Queenstown CEO Tony Everitt said the decrease was driven by a change in the timing of Chinese New Year.

“This saw a surge in Asian visitation in January rather than February this year, which has had a considerable impact on our figures for February 2012.”

“From March we would expect to start seeing some year on year increases as we recover from the 2011 earthquake.”

Ann Cowan, representative for Queenstown’s Motel Association said, although February occupancy was slightly down on the previous time last year it was pleasing to see plenty of domestic tourists travelling.

“Motels also experienced an increase in visitors from USA, Canada and UK and many chose to extend their stay due to the great summer weather we have experienced."