Guest nights spent in commercial short-term accommodation rose 1 percent in April from a year earlier to 2.8 million, with Waikato and Wellington recording sizeable declines.Hotels were the only accommodation type to show a rise in guest nights in April,
Guest nights spent in commercial short-term accommodation rose 1 percent in April from a year earlier to 2.8 million, with Waikato and Wellington recording sizeable declines.
Hotels were the only accommodation type to show a rise in guest nights in April, with a gain of 7 percent or 65,000 guest nights from a year earlier, while backpackers were down 5 percent or 22,000 and holiday parks fell 12,000 or 2 percent, Statistics New Zealand said.
Otago had the largest improvement in guest nights, up 30,000 or 8 percent, followed by Auckland with a gain of 25,000 or 6 percent, and Canterbury which was up 16,000 or 4 percent.
In contrast, guest nights in Waikato fell 20,000 or 8 percent and in Wellington were down 16,000, or 7 percent.
Guest nights by international visitors rose by 17,000 or 2 percent to 1.1m, with a rise of 12 percent or 22,000 in Otago, and a gain of 5 percent or 10,000 in Canterbury.
Wellington recorded 10,000 or 13 percent fewer international guest nights, with Waikato down 8000 or 11 percent.
Domestic guest nights were up by just 5000 to 1.7m, with the biggest gain of 26,000 or 11 percent in Auckland, while Waikato was down 12,000 or 6 percent.
Excluding holiday parks, the occupancy rate slipped to 50 percent in April from 51 percent a year earlier while accommodation capacity increased 2 percent during the 12 months.
Hotels recorded a 55 percent occupancy rate in April, with 50 percent for motels and 44 percent for backpackers.
