Data

Auckland enjoyed the best October in the Asia Pacific in terms of RevPAR, according to CBRE, and its results appeared to be holding up but there was still no sign of a summer bump for the city, according to figures from STR.

The value of building consents issued for hotels, motels and other short term accommodation for October 2020 was $66m, down 4.5% on the same month last year, according to Stats NZ.

Spending by overseas visitors and students within New Zealand fell by half to $1.5bn in the September 2020 quarter, compared with the same period last year, says Stats NZ.

Arrivals for the four weeks to 1 November totalled 8100, down from 265,640 for the corresponding period last year.

While most of the major hotel markets remained static or slid last week, Wellington appeared to steal a march on summer with average weekly occupancy jumping, according to figures from STR.

Hotel occupancy across all of New Zealand remains stubbornly consistent, hovering around 56% for the past two months, according to figures from STR.

An all too brief boost over the September/October school holidays has given way to a general slide for the hard-hit resort, according to figures from STR.

Spending on travel agency and other tour arrangement services was down $128m, or 86%, compared to October 2019.

Despite the challenges, Northland saw visitor spend for the month jump 30% to $84m.

After a climb back to almost pre-Covid levels of occupancy by the end of September, Christchurch’s hotel market has been remarkably consistent over the past month, according to figures from STR.

Women’s jobs in the sector have suffered during the pandemic, according to the latest employment figures.

The value of building consents issued for hotels, motels and other short term accommodation for September 2020 was $44m, a decline of 45.7% for the same month last year, says Stats NZ.

The Wellington regional tourism organisation area topped occupancy across all accommodation types in September for the second month in a row, according to the latest Accommodation Data Programme figures.

Wellington’s hotels have climbed off their August low to be the country’s best performing market in terms of occupancy during October, according to figures from STR.

This compared with national growth of 3.4%, with all other regions seeing a rise in revenue including Northland up 10.7%, Canterbury up 7.1%, Wellingtonupt 5.4%, and Waikato up 3.7%.

Auckland was the only major hotel market to buck falls in average weekly occupancy, albeit only just, according to figures from STR.

Queenstown occupancy led the country’s major hotel markets down last week, despite it still being the second half of the school holidays, according to figures from STR.

Spending on hotels, motels, campgrounds, and other accommodation fell to $133.4m in September 2020, down 29% on the same month last year.

Overseas visitor arrivals were down 96.8% to 7800 in August 2020, compared with August 2019.

All of the country’s major hotel markets enjoyed a weekly increase in occupancy for the first week of the September school holidays, albeit only just for Auckland, according to figures from STR.

Visitor spending in the Hawke’s Bay topped any other region during August.

Most of the country’s major hotel markets saw a significant increase in domestic guest nights between July and September this year, compared to Q3 2019, according to Colliers International.

Foreign tourism is a hard void to fill, especially over summer, the bank says.

Wellington has seen a steady but consistent climb in occupancy since late August to report the highest average weekly rate last week, according to figures from STR.

Countries in the Asia Pacific region including New Zealand have all focused on domestic tourism campaigns to shore up the sector.

Holiday parks reported the only month-on-month growth with 358,700 guest nights, up 11.1% on August 2019.

While most of the country’s major hotel markets have seen a steady rise since Auckland came out of Covid-19 alert level 3 at the end of August, Christchurch has seen a significant increase in occupancy, according to figures from STR.

Ski destinations are leading the top 10 trending destinations ‘rediscovered’ by Kiwis, according to Booking.com. 

While guest nights will recover sooner, occupancy rates will remain suppressed.

Almost 21,000 travellers are expected to pass through Auckland Airport on Friday, one of the busiest days for air travel this September school holidays.

March, April and May were “catastrophic” for the sector, says TIA.

While most of the major hotel markets have gotten a decent lift out of Auckland’s move to Covid-19 alert level 2 with added restrictions on Sunday 30 August, the city itself has struggled by comparison, according to figures from STR.

Auckland’s move to Covid-19 alert level 3 on 12 August saw passenger movements fall sharply at Auckland Airport.

Overseas visitor arrivals were down 95% from 251,800 to 3800 in July 2020, compared with July 2019.

Auckland’s move to Covid-19 alert level 2 on Sunday 30 August, with some added restrictions, saw an immediate effect on the country’s major hotel markets, according to figures from STR.

Spending on travel and tourism services suffered in August 2020 due to Covid-19 alert level 3 restrictions in Auckland and alert level 2 for the rest of New Zealand, says Stats NZ.

Travel restrictions imposed by the Government on passenger arrivals Into New Zealand show a dip in passenger numbers in July followed by a small rise in August.

Around 1 in 14 workers say they expect to lose their job or business by mid-2021, says Stats NZ.

Air New Zealand carried 714,000 passengers during July 2020, down 56% on the same month last year.

Visitors spent $12.6m in Whanganui during July, which was more akin to spending over summer holidays than a typical winter month.

Christchurch bucked the national trend with a sharp jump in occupancy.

There were 9,147 total arrivals through New Zealand borders in July 2020.

The value of building consents issued for hotels, motels and other short term accommodation for the month of July 2020 was $13m, a decline of 52.4% for the same month last year.

Domestic tourists accounted for 59%, or 7063 kilotonnes, of tourism consumption-based emissions in 2017, according to new data from Stats NZ.

Queenstown appears to be suffering most from Auckland’s Covid-19 alert level 3 lockdown, according to figures from STR.

The new dataset will be the country’s leading public insight into New Zealand’s accommodation sector.

However, the impact of the pandemic on visitor numbers would give way to more standard levels of growth by 2031.

Spending on accommodation services was down 44%, or $418m in the June 2020 quarter.

There were 11,300 fewer women working in tourism in June than the same month last year, says Stats NZ.

New Zealand’s major hotel markets all took a hit following Auckland’s move to Covid-19 alert level 3 and the rest of the country to level 2 on 12 August, according to figures from STR.