Some ski fields were due to open from this weekend ahead of the winter period.
NZSki operates three major New Zealand commercial ski fields, including Coronet Peak, the Remarkables and Canterbury's Mt Hutt.
Chief executive Paul Anderson told Checkpoint 35 percent of visitors to Queenstown travelled from Australia.
"The Australians are fantastic visitors for us to both Queenstown and Methven. They're great spenders," he said.
"That's not to say we don't love our local markets also. We've got a strong regional market and good interest in North Island also."
Anderson said there had been a 10 percent year-on-year increase in NZ Ski bookings for the upcoming ski season, largely of domestic visitors.
From an economic perspective, the Australian market was significant as they spent more, he said.
"Because they're on holiday ... you tend to have your budget and you'll spend more. So they'll come to the mountains and spend on food and rentals and lessons.
"And when they're back downtown, they're good consumers of the hospitality offerings in Queenstown."
Although there had been a strong response from local markets in Te Wai Pounamu, Australian visitors were more hesitant.
"What we think we're seeing is that the Australians are booking their flights, but they're just holding back on booking some of the other elements of their holiday to make sure those flights are still in place when they go to travel," Anderson said.
"We're about flat year on year, but last year was a really strong year for us when we grew Australian arrivals by 32 percent. The positive news is that talking to airlines and airports, we can see that trans-Tasman capacity is actually up 15 percent year on year and they're expecting arrivals to be up about 10 percent."
