But it has not put organisers off the resort - they say they'd come to Queenstown even if they had to hold the event in a tent.
Queenstown Research Week started yesterday.
About 1000 scientists have descended on the resort, which will host 11 meetings over six days. Organiser Peter Shepherd, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Auckland, said the event was spread across multiple hotels in Queenstown.
''The size of the conference facilities is very, very limiting at the moment.
''Queenstown's very well set up if you want to have a lot of little meetings - of 100 or 200 people each - but once you get over that, the organisational hassle means it's just too hard.
''So we don't actually promote the meetings very much overseas because what would we do with the people?''
Asked if there was a risk the event could be moved to a place with better facilities, Prof Shepherd replied: ''No, we'll stay with Queenstown - we love it so much. We would come to Queenstown if we had to do the thing in a tent.''
The Queenstown Lakes District Council is pursuing a convention centre but has struggled to attract external funding for the idea.
Research week's anchor meetings are the Queenstown Molecular Biology Meeting, the Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research and the NZ Medical Sciences Congress.
For the first time, the event includes a public outreach programme called Question It, to get the public involved - in conjunction with Queenstown's Catalyst Trust and the New Zealand International Science Festival, of Dunedin.
They include such events as:
• ''Ebola and beyond - how bugs kill us'', today, Queenstown Memorial Centre at 1pm, free
• ''Get yourself to the lab - hands on University of Otago science workshops, tomorrow and Wednesday, Queenstown Memorial Centre, year 7-8 Wakatipu High School pupils, 10am-2pm
• ''Genetic engineering - what and who is it good for?'', Queenstown Memorial Centre, 7.30pm, free
Prof Shepherd said there had been a great public response. For a town of Queenstown's size, it would be hard to find an equivalent outreach programme anywhere in the world, he said.
''One thing we want to do is emphasise to the public the importance of science in our society and how it influences so many of the things we do.''
About 100 scientists have flown in for the research week from all over the world - including from Australia, Europe and the United States, as well as a delegation from China. The rest are from New Zealand, with a large contingent from the University of Otago.
