Comments on: Is the Recession For Tourism Over?

By: Michelle Ackers

Michelle Ackers — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:07:36 +0000

Regardless of the published statistics, anecdotally I wonder what different regions and tourism operators have experienced in January?
Certainly, in Northland it has been a busy summer, and alluded to by Motella, I’d imagine the campgrounds and holiday parks are all happy as Kiwis flock to camping holidays.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:18:37 +0000

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By: Motella

Motella — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 10:45:57 +0000

We have to be pleased that arrival figures are up on December last year.

It will be interesting to see how this will be reflected in the commercial accommodation monitor for December (results are due out in a few days)

At first glance the 6% increase looks good, however we have to remember that we are comparing December 2009 to a relatively low recessionary base. December 2008 recorded o’seas guest nights down by 5% (overall guest nights were down by 3% compared to December 2007).

I believe that we will see a modest increase in relative guest nights from the December 2009 commercial accommodation monitor, however January is the crunch month for most accommodation operators when they should be maximising profits and filling their tanks.

We fear that for some operators this vital month hasn’t been as intense and consistent as it has been in the past. We also believe that there could be an interesting redistribution of guest night results amongst the accommodation sectors as some Kiwis change their holiday habits.

With the 6-week lag of publishing the commercial accommodation monitor results, we will need to wait until March to really answer your question.