Guest nights up 4.6% year on year

New research from Statistics New Zealand shows an increase in Queenstown's total guest nights for the year ending January 31, 2013.

According to the Commercial Accommodation Monitor a year-on-year comparison showed overall guest nights had increased 4.6%.

However, a monthly comparison showed January 2013 was down 3.2% - to 282,288 - compared with January 2012. International guest nights were down 3.4%, to 180,442, while domestic guest nights were down 0.4% to 101,846 in January 2013.

Destination Queenstown chief executive Graham Budd said, based on anecdotal feedback from local businesses, the result was as expected.

''In 2012 we also had Chinese New Year during January, whereas this year it was celebrated in February.

''It's still our second-highest January on record after 2012 and on a 12-month basis it continues a steady growth pattern.

''If we analyse the Christmas and New Year holiday months of December and January combined, we've seen growth of 3.1% over last year.

''So, in context, overall it's a good result.''