Whanganui annual guest nights increase almost 10 per cent on back of summer events

The beach dig was part of the CoLab Australasian Glass Conference which brought people to Whanganui. Photo/ Bevan Conley

Whanganui has had a bumper year of guest nights spent at commercial accommodation, with the district having the country's second highest increase in the year to April 2019.

The latest Statistics New Zealand (Stats NZ) accommodation data shows there were just under 211,000 guest nights spent in Whanganui in the year to April, up 17,250 or 8.9 per cent on the previous year.

Clutha had the country's biggest jump at an increase of 9.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, there were 18,990 guest nights in Whanganui in April 2019, up 2088, or 12.4 per cent on April 2018.

That figure comprises of 15,775 domestic guests nights and 3215 international guest nights.

Whanganui & Partners' Paul Chaplow said the figures painted a positive picture for Whanganui.

"It has been skewed by Easter falling a bit in March last year, so April 2019 was always going to look for favourable compared to April 2018, but I don't think that difference is totally attributed to Easter.

"I think the trend is that we're showing strong accommodation growth so I'm not surprised by the figures."

Earlier this year Whanganui hosted the Masters Games and Australasian Glass Conference which contributed to guest nights.

The combined regions of Manawatu, Whanganui and Taranaki had 175,000 guest nights in April 2019, an increase of 10 per cent on April last year.

Nationally the number of guest nights rose 5 per cent to just over 3.6 million in April.

Domestic guest nights rose 15 per cent while international guest nights dropped 5.6 per cent.

Whanganui & Partners' Paul Chaplow expects the growth to continue. Photo/ Bevan Conley

Chaplow said he expected favourable results in the coming months based off the growth in the sector.

"Winter is traditionally a very quiet time for our accommodation sector but we've got a number of conferences and the new Heritage Month event coming up."