New Zealand Hotel Council independent chairwoman Jennie Langley was in Queenstown and Dunedin this week to talk with those in the hotel industry.
She said the recovery had been slower than expected over the past two years, and room rates across the country had yet to return to pre-2006 levels, as people sought last-minute bookings and cheaper deals.
Fewer people were travelling from traditional long-haul markets such as the United Kingdom and United States, but that was offset by more Asian visitors.
Later in the year, the Rugby World Cup would be a boost to Otago hoteliers but the quake would impact on visitor arrivals in the short term, much as it had after September's quake, she said.
The hotel council was working closely with its members, especially in Christchurch where most of the hotels had been "red stickered", and the wider tourism sector was helping where ever it could, including finding alternative accommodation for visitors and offers of temporary employment for affected staff.
Industry insiders yesterday said there had certainly been some short-term effect on accommodation in Dunedin and Queenstown.
Tourists had cancelled hotel rooms in Dunedin and Queenstown, but that had largely been balanced out by tourists from Christchurch requiring rooms, and displaced Christchurch residents seeking accommodation.
Tourism Dunedin chief executive Hamish Saxton said a survey this week of 28 accommodation providers in Dunedin found 90% had cancellations since the quake, but most had balanced that out with new bookings, and 70% had displaced Christchurch people staying. He was not sure what the longer-term effect might be.
Several thousand Queenstown bookings from Japanese and other Asian tourist groups had been cancelled, Destination Queenstown chief executive Tony Everitt said.
However, he played down talk of the tourist market being spooked by the quake. He said several Japanese groups had this month cancelled tours out of sensitivity for the quake.
More than 100,000 hotel room nights were booked in Queenstown each month, so the cancellations were not a large proportion of that, he said.
Both men said there had been some interest in the relocation of conferences and the like from Christchurch.
Air New Zealand, too, was playing down the level of cancellations from Japan, it was reported yesterday. The airline confirmed some forward bookings had been cancelled, but nothing of material impact.
Many group tours were being changed to exclude Christchurch, because of the damage, but charter flights to cope with peak summer demand were still scheduled to fly.
"We have not cancelled any long-haul flights as a result of any change in demand due to the Christchurch earthquake," head of public affairs Mark Street said.
