Her interviews indicated repercussions were minimal and short-lived - although she quickly modified her questions to include the more damaging February quake.
In a recent talk at the university, Dr Orchiston said it was not possible to quantify the effects on tourism of either Canterbury quake, but from studying overseas disasters it could take years for tourism to recover.
The industry and researchers had only started registering September's effect because life was getting back to normal before the February 22 quake, she said.
From studying Australian media reports, differences in coverage between February and September were stark.
In September, Christchurch was relegated to the back pages of newspapers, with the focus on the Fox Glacier plane crash the same day, in which an Australian tourist died.
Flooding in Victoria was a focus in Australia during that time, which might have accounted for a drop in tourist numbers to New Zealand that some blamed on the first quake.
The 24-hour dramatic coverage of the February quake was very different, but the "Anzac spirit" it engendered could benefit the industry, Dr Orchiston said.
Images and reports of tourists being evacuated efficiently helped the perception New Zealand could cope with disasters.
Tourism New Zealand responded well to both quakes, conveying a "business as usual" message after September, and a safety-first message in February.
The ski season and Rugby World Cup would be barometers of post-quake tourism.
Getting Christchurch International Airport operational promptly after the February quake had been crucial.
Whether ski-bound Australian tourists opted to fly direct to Queenstown in greater numbers this winter because of the quake would be interesting, she said.
In Chile, after an 8.8 quake and tsunami in February last year, tourism from the United States was down 14%, despite tourist infrastructure being largely intact.
Tourism in hurricane-hit New Orleans was only just getting back to normal more than five years later, she said.
She hoped one positive from the New Zealand disaster was increased links between Civil Defence and the tourism industry.
For her PhD, Dr Orchiston, who is also a geologist, studied the likely effects on tourism in the event of a major quake on the Alpine Fault, and found many South Island tourist providers were underinsured and unprepared.
