Te Anau hotel motel complex at gateway to Fiordland

The Fiordland Hotel in Te Anau township has 64 hotel rooms and 25 motel units.

A hotel and motel complex occupying a prominent position at the gateway to the tourist town of Te Anau has been placed on the market presenting an ideal opportunity for an owner-operator to enter the Fiordland accommodation market.

"The Fiordland Hotel is well placed for both refurbishment and expansion," says Barry Robertson, tourism property broker for Colliers Queenstown who, with colleague Steve McIsaac, is marketing the property for sale by deadline private treaty closing at 4 pm on Friday April 24 unless it sells beforehand by negotiation.

The Fiordland is situated on a 1.7 ha site and contains 64 hotel rooms, 25 motel units and extensive amenities including restaurant, bar, conference facilities and indoor pool.

"The complex's configuration enables it to cater effectively for both short and long term stays while the extensive grounds provide ample parking for Free Independent Travelers and tour buses," Robertson says.

He says the township of Te Anau, 120 km north of Milford Sound, acts as a "stepping stone" to a number of prominent 'must see' tourist destinations and benefits from a high volume of visitor traffic.

"Te Anau's accommodation offerings are wide-ranging and the market is competitive, but they are benefiting from a short supply of beds in Queenstown, especially in the peak tourism months.
"With the Fiordland area in a tourism growth phase, new opportunities are opening up for accommodation providers in Te Anau."

McIsaac says visitors are increasingly staying locally for longer in Te Anau rather than day-tripping from a Queenstown base.

"All markers were up for Fiordland tourism and accommodation in 2014 including visitor numbers, occupancy rates, length of stay and guest nights. The latter were recorded by Statistics NZ at 477,105 over the year to November 2014, an increase of 17.7 per cent from 2013. In Te Anau both guest nights and occupancy rates in January 2015 were up from January 2014. Domestic and international guest nights were also higher.

"Over the same period, the average length of stay in Fiordland increased and overall accommodation occupancy rose from 27.7 per cent to 32.2 per cent," McIsaac says.

"The Fiordland Regional Tourism Office (RTO) has created local profiling campaigns throughout the calendar year, aimed at increasing Te Anau's profile as a tourist destination.

"These local events range from the Asics Kepler Challenge ultra-marathon weekend and Milford Mountain Classic (120km mountain race), to the Te Anau Tartan Festival and Highland Games at Easter and a craft fishing competition timed for Labour Weekend.

"On a national scale, indicators are also positive for accommodation owner-operators. Reports from Statistics NZ trend upward growth with the 402,500 visitors recorded for December 2014 being the highest visitor month ever into New Zealand."

McIsaac says all tourist markets are recording increased visitor numbers. "Australia continues to top the list at just under 1.3 million visitors over 2014, while Chinese visitors showed a marked 15.7 per cent increase for 2014."