The Southland TimesSaturday, 16 August 2008
By STAFF REPORTERS
Soaring fuel prices and tough economic times are hitting accommodation providers in Queenstown and Wanaka hard.
Motel and camping ground owners have been worst affected with a nationwide 14 percent drop for the month of June this year compared with June 2007, according to just-released Statistics New Zealand figures.
Waikato and Otago recorded the largest falls, down 13 percent (22,000) and 9 percent (20,000) respectively.
Te Anau motelier Craig Duncan pictured outside his Bella Vista Motel. Mr Duncan said bookings were well up on August 2007, perhaps because of the better than average ski season in Queenstown and Wanaka.
"We're definitely down," Motel Association of New Zealand Wanaka branch president Paul Parker said.
"There's an economic uncertainty out there. There's less Japanese about and I think when fuel prices were peaking that was having a really strong effect." "There's certainly some (accommodation providers) hurting." Queenstown Lakes District holiday parks manager Greg Hartshorne said there had been a big decrease in domestic visitors at the Queenstown Lakes District Council-owned Arrowtown and Queenstown camping grounds.
"The main thing we're noticing is the price of petrol has stopped all those people who nipped in here for a weekend's skiing or just came down for a couple of days." It was the first time in 14 years he had noticed vacancy signs on Frankton Rd during the annual winter festival.
The Arrowtown camping ground had been harder hit than its Queenstown counterpart.
It has been a reasonably quiet winter for accommodation outlets in the deep south although moteliers in Eastern Southland say they have been kept busy by the booming dairy industry.
Gore's Esplanade Motels owner Rena Butel said this week her occupancy rate last month was 76 percent. That compared to 32 percent for Southland, for the same period last year.
Her guests were not tourists but contractors involved with the dairy industry or major construction projects in the town.
There were also a lot of guests connected with Solid Energy, which has vast lignite resources near Mataura — "it's just that Gore is so busy", Mrs Butel said.
Statistics New Zealand's accommodation survey for June, released this week, showed a quiet month for Southland moteliers.
Guest nights were down 3000, or 10 percent, on June 2007.
Statistics New Zealand project manager Tehseen Islam said month to month comparisons for the accommodation sector could be quite volatile.
For the 2007-2008 year, guest nights in Southland were down by 1000 which was reflected as a 0 percent variation on the 2006-2007 year, he said.
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