All the economic news out of Europe might be bad, but that does not seem to be impacting negatively on business confidence in Wanaka.
A Wanaka Chamber of Commerce online survey - carried out in the past two weeks of May and released yesterday - shows half of the 80 businesses that took part believed their financial situation would improve.
The figure at the last survey, in November last year, was 39%.
And those expecting business to deteriorate was 8% this time, compared with 20% in the previous survey.
Chamber vice-president Alistair King said the findings were "more encouraging" but there were still concerns for many businesses, and visitor numbers remained the "key driver" of profitability.
Of those surveyed, 31% said they were better off financially in the past three months, 31% said their profitability was the same and 36% reported lower profits.
In the next three months, 34% expected profitability to improve, 45% to stay the same and 20% to decrease, excluding normal seasonal changes.
"This suggests an improving situation, whilst challenges remain."
Forty-one percent of businesses surveyed believed the general business situation in Wanaka would improve in the immediate future, compared to 25% in the past survey, and 9% believed it would be worse, compared with 29% previously.
The single biggest factor limiting businesses' ability to expand was demand, although capacity had become a bigger matter, with 21% identifying it as an issue, compared with 10% at the previous survey.
Twenty-six percent said they would not be able to afford to pay staff more, compared with 35% at the last survey, while 33% were considering pay increases of between 1% and 2% and 21% expected to increase wages between 3% and 5%.
Mr King said he believed people had "got through" the global financial crisis and had come to the realisation they were in a "new economic trading environment and have adjusted their business accordingly".
Although he considered New Zealand was not sheltered from the problems in Europe, most of the tourist trade was from Australia and Asia.
"So it will be interesting to see how things roll out in the next six to 12 months with what's going on in Europe."
