Rotorua's commercial accommodation held its own in July, with visitor nights rising slightly to 135,907 and pre-Rugby World Cup numbers for August look promising.
But Rotorua Tourism Committee chairman Tony Marks said it would be very difficult to make comparisons to previous years from June through to the end of
the year because of the impact of the Rugby World Cup.
"We are living in extraordinary times, with economic issues and tourism flows changing because of the Rugby World Cup. There are large numbers of people who are deciding not to travel or who are changing their travel plans around the tournament."
For this reason, the committee has set targets based on past statistics, future projections and national comparisons, rather than purely on growth.
These include targets such as increasing Rotorua's share of Australian visitors and increasing average room nights and spend to at least the national average.
July saw an 8.4 per cent drop in international visitor nights during the month, but an overall rise of 0.3 per cent.
"I do not like the numbers and we do have to work to make them higher, but comparisons with other years are probably irrelevant."
Although the regional accommodation figures for August will not be released until next month, Statistics New Zealand has just announced a national 4.7 per cent increase on the same month last year, attributing at least half of this to the early arrival of Rugby World Cup visitors.
Britons and Australians led the charge, with transtasman visitor numbers up 5.5 per cent and arrivals from the United Kingdom rising 4.1 per cent.
Looking at the year to August, Malaysian and Chinese arrivals have also seen dramatic increases. Visitors from Malaysia rose 48.6 per cent and from China 18.2 per cent.
Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said these figures were a result of growing interest in New Zealand and increased air capacity from Asia.
At 29,800 visitors in the past 12 months, Malaysia has now overtaken India's 28,600 to become New Zealand tourism's 10th largest source country.
"Decreases in arrivals from the United States, Korea and Japan are not unexpected considering the ongoing impacts of the global financial crisis and the earthquakes in Japan and Christchurch."
Bowler said he expected further increases in international visitor arrivals throughout the Rugby World Cup period, which should give many New Zealand businesses a boost during the industry's shoulder season.
THE NUMBERS _ Rotorua visitor statistics for July (compared to July2010)
Visitor nights: 135,907 - up 0.3 per cent
Domestic nights: 92,854 - up 4.9 per cent
International nights: 43,052 - down 8.4 per cent
Average stay: 1.76 nights - up from 1.69
Occupancy: 38.2 per cent of 188,821 available units
By accommodation sector
Hotels
Nights: 59,164 - down 4 per cent
Percentage of all accommodation: 44
Occupancy: 57.1 per cent
Motels
Nights: 47,368 - up 1 per cent
Percentage of all accommodation: 35
Occupancy: 48.5 per cent
