NZ guest nights up in June, breaking trend

Accommodation nights rose in June for the first time in five months. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand guest nights rose in June, snapping five months of declines, led by an increase in domestic guest nights.

Total guest nights rose 4 per cent to 1.8 million in June from the same month a year earlier, according to Statistics New Zealand.

The rise came from an 8.8 per cent gain in domestic guest nights to 1.7 million, while international guest nights rose 3.9 per cent to 1 million.

"Domestic guest nights drove the overall increase, with international guest nights rising to a lesser extent," Blair Cardno, industry and labour statistics manager, said in a statement.

"Most of the national rise occurred in the North Island, particularly in Auckland, with hotels showing a strong increase."

North Island guest nights rose 4.5 per cent compared to June last year, led by a 12.9 per cent increase in Auckland to 401,000 nights. Guest nights in the South Island rose by 3.4 per cent to 611,000. The trend remains "relatively flat" in the South Island largely due to last year's Canterbury earthquake, the government department said.

Guest nights rose across all accommodation types, led by an 8.2 per cent increase in hotels to 976,000 compared to a month earlier. The number of nights spent at hotels has increased 5.3 per cent since a recent low point in December.

Nationally, the number of nights spent in motels rose 4.8 per cent to 917,000, holiday parks increased 2.5 per cent to 543,000 and backpacker accommodation advanced 0.5 per cent to 343,000.