Weather has mixed effect on holiday bookings

Motels and camping grounds are expecting a bumper few weeks over the festive period but hotels are not so full. File picture / Hawke's Bay Today

Bad weather appears to have had a mixed effect on visitor numbers in the Central North Island.

Motels and camping grounds are expecting a bumper few weeks over the festive period but hotels are not so full.

Rotorua Hotel Managers' Association chairman Graeme Back said bookings were down compared with last year. He blamed the drop in numbers on the weather.

"I think this year people are leaving their plans a bit later. If there is a reasonable spell of weather then people will travel," he said.

But Motel Association Rotorua spokesman Ian Pound said bookings were very heavy between Monday and Thursday next week and then pick up again from January 2 for the rest of the month.

He said the men's National Provincial Cup softball tournament in Rotorua next week was one of the reasons behind the big influx of visitors at his motel next week.

"I think a lot of people are sitting back and seeing what this weather is going to do before committing themselves to going away."

Motor camps throughout the region say the weather has not significantly affected business.

"We are absolutely, phenomenally, superbly busy," said Cushla Tuhua from the Ohope Beach Top 10 Holiday Park.

"There are odd spaces here and there and there have been a few cancellations during the past couple of days because kids have got the sniffles but they are coming back after Christmas."

Cathy Butler from the Suncourt Motor Hotel and Conference Centre in Taupo, said the town was already filling up.

"I don't think the weather has really made a difference. They're not going to cancel Christmas because of the weather. It's bumper-to-bumper at the moment. It drives you nuts."

Meanwhile, Nelson moteliers are facing a gloomy new year, with hundreds of motel beds predicted to be empty as New Zealanders opt for cheap airfares to Australia instead of traditional holiday spots.

Motel Association Nelson branch spokeswoman Cathy Daltry said motel bookings over the Christmas and new year period were strong, but a sampling of motels in Nelson and Tahunanui showed hundreds of empty rooms from the second week in January.

"The trouble is that most of us had a pretty poor winter and unless things pick up dramatically there will be precious little money next year to market ourselves domestically."

Mrs Daltry said cheap airfares across the Tasman were partially to blame for the downturn in the numbers of New Zealanders choosing to spend their summer holiday in Nelson.

Mrs Daltry said it was domestic holidaymakers who were staying away.

"We are still getting the foreign tourists, but the average Kiwi family hasn't booked its traditional week in sunny Nelson."

Latitude Nelson chief executive Paul Davis said Nelson traditionally experienced a lull in visitors after the Christmas holidays until February when international visitors started arriving again.

He believed the cheap transtasman airfares had definitely contributed to the domestic downturn.

Tahunanui Beach Accommodation Park office manager Valda Holland said the camp was full as usual over the holiday season.

"As far as actual accommodation goes it is January 24 before we can offer anyone a reasonable number of nights stay."

Kaiteriteri Beach Motor Camp, Pohara Beach Top 10 Holiday Park and Mapua Leisure Park all said they were almost full from Boxing Day until the middle of January.

- NZPA