Holiday parks soaking up summer travellers
Visitors to holiday parks are running at record numbers as Kiwis and overseas tourists enjoy the long, hot summer, with some going back for a second break.
Guest night numbers at holiday parks in January alone hit 1.55 million, up 4.5 per cent on the same month last year, says Statistics NZ.
Guest nights at holiday parks for the year ended January are already 100,000 up on the previous record set in 2008, before the global financial crisis hit, and the March year is set to be a recordbreaker, too.
While holiday park numbers are up, hotels, motels and backpackers had a quieter January compared with December, with total guest nights down 1.1 per cent.
The biggest hit was for backpackers, with guest nights down 3.9 per cent in January compared with December, seasonally adjusted figures show.
Motels were down 2.3 per cent in January, but that followed a strong run of gains in the second half of 2014.
Hotels were almost steady, dipping just 0.6 per cent between December and January.
Holiday parks ran against the tide, with guest nights up 1.7 per cent in January compared with December, and 4.5 per cent ahead of January last year.
Holiday Parks Association chief executive Fergus Brown said the sector was doing ‘‘very well’’.
‘‘We have had a wonderful summer, with great weather in January and February.’’
And with a long summer, some people were going back for an extra break after their Christmas holiday, he said.
Confidence among holiday park operators was at high levels, pointing to a strong outlook for the year ahead, he said. ‘‘It is looking good. ‘‘International visitors are coming back, and Kiwis are travelling.’’
In the past year, there had been an increase in the number of New Zealanders wanting a traditional ‘‘Kiwi holiday’’, Brown said.
They were ‘‘people wanting to escape the pressures of the city and have a holiday like they used to’’.
Holiday parks were also seeing strong growth from overseas tourists, including Chinese, Germans, Americans and Australians.
‘‘The Asian markets are giving us a bit of a boost,’’ Brown said. ‘‘They want to explore the out- doors and interact with other travellers.’’
Meanwhile, Hotel Waterloo and Backpackers in Wellington said numbers were fractionally down on a year ago. One of the owners, Simon Rea, said the hotel tended to have about half inter- national guests and half domestic, catering to backpackers and also as a budget hotel.
There were many European travellers, especially Germans, but not as many British tourists as in the past, he said. The numbers of Americans and Asian guests were up, too.
The hotel’s occupancy rate was in the 70 per cent range, but operated on high volume and low price.
Room rates were not rising, and Rea said the business had to be aware of the competition.