Mixed Accommodation Survey Results

Can we read anything into October's guest night survey results before the busy summer high season?

We are still on holiday, however we were interested in the latest accommodation survey results for October released last week by Statistics New Zealand. 

Overall it's good news with total guest nights in short-term commercial accommodation for October 2009 up by half a percent compared to October last year. It is also pleasing to note an upward trend with October 2009 guest nights up by 5 percent on October 2007. However there are some mixed results.

When compared with October 2008, guest nights in the North Island were down 1 percent with the South Island up 3 percent. Similar to pervious months, regions that are on the main skiing routes continue to return better results than those regions that are not. K Rudd's Australian stimulus package has made many Kiwi tourism operators grateful recipients of Ozzie wealth redistribution. It will be interesting to see if the Australian market can continue beyond one of our best ever ski seasons.

Seven of the 12 regions recorded more guest nights in October 2009 compared with October 2008, with the following regions showing the largest increases: 

• Otago, up 12,000 (4 percent)
• Canterbury, up 10,000 (2 percent) 
• Southland, up 6,000 (10 percent).

The region showing the largest decrease was Taranaki/Manawatu-Wanganui, down 13,000 (8 percent).

Again, largely thanks to our Ozzie cousins, international visitors boosted overall  guest nights in October 2009 with an increase of 5 percent compared with October 2008.

Dissappointingly, domestic guest nights fell by 2 percent in October 2009 compared with October 2008. The majority of accommodation providers are looking for a strong rebound in the domestic market for the peak season starting from the last week in December in order to appease their bank managers. With traveling decisions being made more and more last minute it is difficult to second guess what the demand will be however it is hoped that October's slight decline in domestic guest nights is a small stutter before Kiwis take to the road en-masse this summer.

In October 2009, two of the four accommodation types had more guest nights than in October
2008:

• hotels, up 18,000 (2 percent)
• backpackers, up 16,000 (5 percent)
• motels, down 12,000 (1 percent)
• holiday parks, down 11,000 (3 percent).

In October 2009, hotels had the highest occupancy rate (36 percent), followed by motels (34 percent), and holiday parks (16 percent). 

Motels will be looking forward to a strong summer season to claw back some lost ground to the hotel sector. 

Source: Click HERE