International travellers a boost for Southland
While domestic tourism slumps, international tourism to Southland has more than made up for it, new data shows.
There were 27.2% more visitors to Southland in December 2023 compared to the equivalent month in 2022, and the number of those visiting Fiordland was up by 42.5%, regional development agency Great South has found.
Great South general manager of tourism and events Mark Frood said the visitors were mainly international guests.
Domestic visitors to Southland had dropped by 8.7%, and visitors to Fiordland were down by 0.9% year-on-year.
There were 641,600 visitors logged by the Fiordland regional tourism organisation in 2023, while Southland logged 595,100 visitors.
This was an increase of 93% from the 331,607 visitors to Fiordland in 2022, and a 25% increase from 475,462 visitors to Southland.
After falling consecutively since 2019, visitor numbers to Southland and Fiordland had only picked up in 2022.
“From a regional perspective, we’re quite varied in terms of our numbers because some markets within our region are more heavily dependent on domestic and corporate, and others have more international exposure,” Frood said. “All places that had international exposure have done pretty well.”
Arrivals in New Zealand were 85% of pre-Covid numbers, he said.
“Domestic has been soft for reasons we all know, [such as] the cost of living.”
This was reflected in Invercargill, where inflation and the cost of living were cited for a massive drop in profit for the Invercargill Licensing Trust (ILT) in the month of January.
ILT’s year-on-year profit before tax had dropped 91%, from $315,000 in January 2023 to $27,000 in January this year.
The trust’s accommodation sales were also down, owing to the “very slow return” of business travellers this year, “coupled with fewer leisure travellers as compared with post-Covid domestic travel”.
At the start of summer, many accommodation providers in Southland said they were preparing for a busy season, with some reporting bookings until the end of April.
Fiordland Business Association chairperson and Shakespeare House B&B co-owner Nathan Benfell said his B&B was at 94% occupancy in December, up by 32% on the previous year.
“Summer’s been outstanding really, we’re back to near normal, or even slightly above normal,” he said, referring to normal as pre-Covid. “It’s been a steady amount of people coming through. The biggest concern now is winter.”
Benfell said most of the visitors to Fiordland were international, whereas domestic tourists would probably “explore their backyards” during the off-peak time.
“Tourism is definitely doing well nationally, and Fiordland’s getting a lion’s share of that ... but that’s just a moment in time, we need to look at 12 months.
“We’re all mindful of increased costs, lack of staff, accommodation, and how we get through winter months.”
Earlier this month, the region enjoyed a bump in retail sales as well, contrary to the national downturn, with the town being “as busy as ever”, Benfell said at the time.