Bay still draws winter visitors

Fullers GreatSights of Bay of Islands general manager Charles Parker said visitor numbers had increased this winter. Photo / Fullers GreatSights

Northland guest nights were down in June on the same month last year, but one tourism provider has had a good winter, thanks in part to a drive for more domestic visitors.

Statistics New Zealand, which collects data for guests staying in hotels, motels, backpacker accommodation and holiday parks in New Zealand each month, says Northland guest nights were down 4.4 per cent this June on last to 66,000. A guest night is a guest spending one night in an establishment.

Fullers GreatSights of Bay of Islands general manager Charles Parker said visitor numbers had increased this winter driven by good, stable weather, a boost in international visitors and its work to draw domestic visitors to the Bay of Islands.

The business generally had more domestic than international visitors during the winter months. It had been focusing on the winter and "shoulder" seasons of spring and autumn to improve profitability. Fullers GreatSights revenue grew in June, but not by as much as in May and July, said Mr Parker.

He thought that was partly due to Queen's Birthday activity falling predominantly into May this year.

He was optimistic about the coming summer, saying the Bay was hosting several conferences in September and international visitor forecasts were strong.

"We're also working really heavily with the Bay of Islands marketing group in driving domestic campaigns to improve visitation," he said.

Statistics New Zealand said national guest nights for June 2015 were 3.1 per cent higher than in June 2014. Business indicators manager Neil Kelly said most of the rise for June was from international guest nights and the increase was spread across the North and the South Island.

For June 2015, compared with June 2014, domestic guest nights were up 0.6 per cent, and international guest nights were up 8 per cent. North Island guest nights were up 2.7 per cent, and South Island guest nights were up 3.8 per cent.

For the year ended June 2015 national guest nights were up 5.3 per cent from the June 2014 year.

Tourism Industry Association New Zealand chief executive Chris Roberts said New Zealand had a strong summer and autumn and that had continued into winter.

Many members were reporting "extremely strong" bookings for the coming summer. "We did have a record summer last year and we're looking set to beat that by a considerable margin this summer."