October guest nights fall, hotels the bright spot

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New Zealand guest nights declined for a second month, with hotels the only bright spot on the October accommodation survey.

This is the fourth consecutive month hotels were the only accommodation category to show growth in guest nights, up 39,000 to 4.3 per cent, according to figures released by Statistic New Zealand.

Motels fell 47,000 or 5.4 per cent, backpackers fell 19,000 or 5.7 per cent, and holiday parks fell 16,000 or 3.8 per cent.

Total guest nights fell 1.7 per cent in October, following a 1.2 per cent decline in the previous month

"The trend for the total number of guest nights has been slowly declining since October 2009, down 1.1 per cent from the October 2009 peak and 2.3 per cent below the highest month of December 2007," the department said in a statement.

International visitors accounted for 900,000 guest nights in the month, down 5.7 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year, and 1 per cent softer than the October 2008.

This is in line with visitor arrival figures, which showed 2500 fewer international travelers visited the country in October compared to the same month a year ago.

Eight of the 12 regions saw fewer guest nights in October compared to the same month in the previous year, lead by South Island which declined 5 per cent to 958,000.

The largest decrease was in Canterbury which fell 4.2 per cent, which the department said was partially due to a 14 per cent drop off in international visitors after the September earthquake and subsequent aftershocks.

The main increases in guest nights were in Auckland, which rose by 9000 or 4.2 per cent, Bay of Plenty up 5,000 or 2.3 per cent, and Northland up 4,000 to 3.6 per cent.