Canterbury hotel visits plunge after quake

The earthquakes caused hotel capacity in Canterbury to fall by half. Photo / Simon Baker

The number of guest nights overseas visitors spent in Canterbury fell 45 per cent from a year earlier during March, following the previous month's devastating earthquake in Christchurch.

Figures from Statistics New Zealand yesterday show total guest nights throughout the country fell 5.4 per cent in March from a year earlier to 3.1 million.

International guest nights were down 13 per cent or 206,000 from a year earlier to 1.4 million in March, with 130,000 fewer in Canterbury, 29,000 or 10 per cent fewer in Otago, 18,000 or 19 per cent fewer on the West Coast, and 16,000 or 12 per cent fewer in the Bay of Plenty.

Domestic guest nights rose 1.7 per cent or 29,000 to 1.7 million, with Auckland up 38,000 or 14 per cent, Otago up 15,000 or 9.1 per cent, and Wellington up 7000 or 4.2 per cent.

In Canterbury, domestic guest nights were down 35,000 or 14 per cent, while Hawkes Bay/Gisborne dropped 11,000 or 11 per cent.

Guest nights in hotels were down 117,000 or 11 per cent from a year earlier in March, backpacker guest nights fell 41,000 or 8.2 per cent, motel nights were down 11,000 or 1 per cent, and holiday parks dropped 9000 or 1.4 per cent.

Capacity in short-term accommodation fell in March from a year earlier, mainly because of the Canterbury quakes. That caused hotel capacity in Canterbury to fall by half, and backpacker accommodation to fall by a third, SNZ said.

Nationwide, hotel capacity was down 100,000 guest nights or 9.6 per cent, backpackers were down 42,000 or 4.9 per cent, and motels dropped 6000 or 0.7 per cent.

The occupancy rate fell 0.9 percentage points in March from a year earlier to 59 per cent.

- NZPA