Ruapehu accommodation providers benefit from visitor and tourism growth
Ruapehu accommodation providers have had a good year according to the latest guest night statistics from the Commercial Accommodation Monitor (CAM).
Figures for the year ended June 2017 show total guest nights rose 5.3 percent to 466,557 with international guest nights rising 10.6 percent to 175,816 and domestic guest nights rising 2.3 percent to 290,740.
The average length of stay fell slightly from 1.70 nights to 1.68 nights however, the overall occupancy rate rose from 29.3 percent to 32.1 percent.
Council Economic Development Manager Warren Furner said that the CAM compiled by Statistics NZ provides one of the key benchmarks for how well the tourism and visitor sector is doing.
Likewise, because of the relative importance of tourism and visitor services to Ruapehu the commercial guest night statistics are one of the key indicators for the strength of the local economy, he said.
As the CAM doesn't capture hosted accommodation such as private hotels, bed and breakfasts, hostels, Book-a-bach, Air BnB or farm stays, etc. the actual guest nights spent in Ruapehu would have been much higher.
Mr. Furner said that the CAM data provided supporting evidence that Council's investment into economic development activities such as destination promotion through Visit Ruapehu (VR) was worthwhile.
Excitingly we know from research undertaken by VR that the pro-active marketing of Ruapehu as a destination can provide even bigger opportunities for local accommodation providers to gain an even bigger share of the national growing visitor and tourism market.
This highlighted that once people knew about the experiences on offer in Ruapehu their propensity for coming to the district on holiday doubled from 14% to 28%.
Mr. Furner added that comparing the month of June 2017 result against month of June 2016 showed the impact of how large international sporting tours and Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) investment strategy flowed through to the local economy.
The June month on month comparison for 2016 and 2017 showed that guest nights rose 22.9 percent with international guest nights contributing 37.6 percent and domestic guest nights rising 17.3 percent.
This result reflects the Lions Rugby Tour and the early opening of Whakapapa Ski area on 3 June this year which was made possible by RAL's investment in new snow making technology.
Local businesses and potential investors wanting Ruapehu economic information should see Council's website ruapehudc.govt.nz where in addition to the CAM data they can get retail spending activity, Marketview reports and other research, he said.
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