‘Pretty good summer’ for Southland tourism
An influx of visitors from Australia, the United States and China has been a major contributor to a “pretty good summer” in Southland.
Great South general manager of tourism and events Mark Frood said while the overall number of visitors was not on par with pre-Covid figures, tourism in the region was driven largely by international arrivals.
Visitors from countries outside of Australia, the United States and China were slower to return but the increase in international flights connecting in Christchurch and Auckland was likely to boost those numbers, he said.
“Places like Fiordland have a much stronger international influence, and other places in Southland tend to be more domestic [visitors]. You get a mix that go into places like Stewart Island and the Catlins. It’s hard to get a finger on the pulse [of which areas have the most demand]. In general, domestic [tourism] was down and international was up.”
Last year’s summer had been busy but this year, the “harsh economic conditions” would have contributed to the softening of domestic demand, Frood said.
Fiordland had a 29% boost in visitors in March, compared to March 2023, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Accommodation Data Programme. About 87,000 people visited in March, up from 67,200 in March 2023, Frood said.
This was attributed to a growth in international visitors due to increased international flights into New Zealand.
In Southland, there were about 65,000 visitors in March, compared to 66,900 visitors in March 2023, a drop of 1.5%, driven by a reduction in domestic visitors that was not completely offset by the increase in international visitors, Frood said. Visitors in January came from the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, in that order, while the year ending in January had the highest numbers of visitors from the US, followed by Australia, Canada and Singapore.
For the next summer, Frood said he expected tourism to be “relatively positive” but was mindful of global geopolitical tensions, and said the economic conditions were likely to keep domestic tourism in the region flat and low.
Great South was working on “building out our shoulder seasons, when it gets quieter”, through events, he said, adding there would be an increased capacity of hotel rooms in Invercargill once the Distinction Hotel was operating next year.