Small pick-up in international guest nights

After falling for eight months in a row, international guest nights in hotels, motels, backpackers, and holiday parks held steady in August, rising 0.5 percent compared with the same month a year ago, Stats NZ said today.

Overseas guests spent almost 960,000 nights in commercial accommodation in August 2019, up 5,000 on August 2018.

“International guest nights picked up in August, after falling each month since the end of 2018. On the other hand, domestic guest nights have generally been rising for about 18 months,” accommodation statistics manager Melissa McKenzie said.

“August is typically one of the lower months for overseas visitors, with international guest nights doubling in summer compared with the quieter winter season.”
Meanwhile, domestic guest nights continued to grow, more than offsetting recent falls in international guest nights.

In August 2019, Kiwis spent 88,000 more guest nights in commercial accommodation than in the same month last year, a 5.6 percent increase.

Total guest nights rose 3.7 percent to 2.6 million in August 2019, including 1.7 million domestic and 960,000 international guest nights.

Annual guest nights growing slower than last year

In the year ended August 2019, total guest nights rose 1.4 percent to 40,523,000 from the August 2018 year. Domestic guest nights rose 4.0 percent, while international guest nights fell 2.0 percent over the same period.

The annual total guest nights growth rate has eased from over 2 percent in 2018 due to falling international guest nights. This continues a general downward trend since the spring of 2016.
The accommodation survey collects data for guests staying in short-term commercial accommodation such as hotels, motels, backpackers, and holiday parks. Hosted and private accommodation, such as bed and breakfasts and holiday homes, are excluded.

Accommodation survey to end

This is the second to last release of Accommodation survey data. The final release on 14 November 2019 will have data for the September 2019 month. For more information see four surveys to end.

See Accommodation survey: August 2019 for alternative accommodation data sources.

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