Travel&Vacation

Statistics New Zealand’s (SNZ) latest accommodation survey, released today, showed total guest nights at 2.2 million, down 5 percent from September 2007. The number was 1 percent lower than the figure for September 2006.

September was the fourth consecutive month in which total guest nights had decreased when compared with the same month the previous year, SNZ said.

Hospitality Association of New Zealand (HANZ) chief executive Bruce Robertson is urging accommodation operators to hold prices and avoid the temptation to cut them in an attempt to shore up flagging guest numbers.

He fears a price war would be to everyone’s detriment and probably wouldn’t work.

“People aren’t coming to New Zealand because of price,” Mr Robertson told BusinessDay.co.nz.

Motels and backpackers took the brunt of the latest fall, SNZ said, with each seeing nine percent fewer stays than the same time last year. Motels recorded a fall of 77,000 guest nights and backpackers 28,000.

The trend in total guest nights had been falling for 13 months, SNZ added, and was now 3 percent lower than the recent peak. However, this was still 3 percent higher than the most recent low point in January 2006, SNZ added.

Separately, SNZ has said New Zealand received more than 11,000 fewer overseas visitors in September compared to last year.

Mr Robertson said the industry had been pretty good at holding its collective nerve to date, but HANZ was expecting things to get much worse, with the four to five percent drops seen now becoming ten percent by April.

Despite the gloom, he said it was at times like these that the best companies invested more – rather than less – in marketing.

Mr Robertson suggested it might be time for Tourism New Zealand to, at least temporarily, take on a domestic brief to encourage locals to holiday within New Zealand. He also expects incoming Prime Minister John Key, who plans to be Minister for Tourism, to address spending on marketing.