Shoulder season data confirms buoyancy of tourism in the South
INCREASED airline passenger capacity between Auckland and Queenstown helped buoy Air New Zealand’s domestic passenger numbers in March, while offseason tourist spending around Otago continues to climb.
It is the between summer and winter shoulder tourism season in Otago, but tourism spending for March still rose 3% on a year ago, to $346 million.
Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive Dougal McGowan, speaking from Shanghai yesterday, said extra international airline capacity into Auckland was paying dividends for Queenstown and Dunedin, through extra flights to both airports.
‘‘The extra flights from about 11 airlines into Auckland means they are having to get tourists out of there quicker, into Queenstown, Christchurch and Dunedin,’’ he said.
While aircraft movements in Queenstown were only up 0.5% for March, — 1250 movements — domestic passengers were up 11.4% to 132,086 for the month, and international numbers were up 6% to 40,412.
When asked if Otago had struck the right balance between attractions and infrastructure to cope with tourists, Mr McGowan cautioned that places like Auckland, Queenstown and Rotorua ‘‘do have considerable infrastructure issues’’.
While there was a lack of five star hotels, those centres also had mounting issues with water and waste management, which had to be addressed, he said.
Total airline passenger numbers around the country for March rose 5.2%, from 1.53 million a year ago to 1.61 million.
Air New Zealand’s March per formance was reflected in separate tourism data released yesterday, which said Otago’s tourism spend during the year to March rose 8% on a year ago, to $3.5 billion.
Acting Tourism Minister Nicky Wagner said Tourism New Zealand’s big effort to get more international visitors to come here during offpeak seasons was starting to gain some traction.
‘‘New Zealand’s tourism sector saw some exceptional growth in 2016, and it’s great to see strong spending figures stretching out into March this year,’’ Ms Wagner said.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) manager of sector trends David Paterson said for the year to March, international visitors spending rose 13% to $2 billion, while domestic tourism spending rose 2% to $1.5 billion.
For the year to March, Otago booked an 8% increase to $3.53 billion from tourism spend ing, while spending in March alone rose 3% to $346 million.
‘‘When it comes to the monthly expenditure, tourism spend in Otago for the month of March 2017 is up 3% compared with the month of March 2016,’’ Mr Paterson said.
Domestic passengers for March rose from just over 1 million a year ago to 1.09 million, demand was up 10.3% and capacity increased by 7.9%, due to an increase in services on the Auckland to Queenstown route and other main trunk routes, Air New Zealand said in its monthly update yesterday.
MBIE’s monthly regional tourism estimates measure the expenditure of international and domestic visitors in regions in New Zealand.
MBIE’s estimated March spending by product credited $197 million in Queenstown for accommodation services, and for food and beverages in Dunedin and Wanaka, the spend was, respectively, $72 million and $50 million
The annual spend by territorial authorities, for the year to March, was $2.59 billion in Queenstown, $693 million in Dunedin and $182 million in the central Otago district, MBIE estimated.
Auckland Airport’s monthly traffic figures show domestic passenger movements rose 8.4% to 807,401 in March, outpacing a 6.6% gain in international passengers, excluding transits, to 397,706, BusinessDesk reported. Domestic aircraft movements increased 6.3% to 10,549.
simon.hartley@odt.co.nz