Wakatipu holiday parks enjoyed relatively good business from overseas guests on Christmas Day but were counting on the traditional influx of New Zealanders from today and throughout the New Year period.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council-owned Queenstown Lakeview Holiday Park had a "very late rush on bookings" and predicted it would be full leading up to the New Year, holiday parks manager Greg Hartshorne said yesterday.
"But bookings are way down on previous years. A few people have waited to see what's happening, job-wise . . .Any [operator] dealing with the domestic climate will be aware of the [economic] climate.
"We've lost one or two bookings because they've been made redundant."
Mr Hartshorne said he expected Lakeview would have 65% self-contained room occupancy and 80% tent and campervan occupancy by last night.
The "old" 600-tent capacity camping ground at the top of Man St would reopen on Saturday in time for younger visitors and "a few bookings" were still available, he said.
"It's important the message we put out is Queenstown is here all year round and it's as affordable to stay here as anywhere else."
Shotover Top 10 Holiday Park was hosting 100 guests of all ages in its standard cabin, lodge, self-contained unit, campervan and tent facilities yesterday morning.
Additional walk-in tent and campervan bookings were expected and the Arthurs Pt Rd park could cater for more than 200.
About 80% of bookings yesterday were for international guests who had pre-booked months earlier, before the global credit crunch struck.
New Zealanders would spend Christmas at home with families then go camping from Boxing Day onwards.
Co-owner Kenneth Mitchell said the holiday park sector could "ride the storm" better than other accommodation providers.
"Although we had a small decline through September and November, we have a robust number of bookings for the Christmas and New Year period.
I'm quietly confident we won't see much serious reduction.
"I know there have been some very serious reductions in certain sectors of the hospitality industry in the last few months. I would rather own a holiday park because we're at the lower end of the price bracket and people are going to come on holiday anyway."
Mr Mitchell said self-contained accommodation was always popular and his was near full.
Facilities like Shotover Top 10 Holiday Park appealed to New Zealanders for the open spaces, children's play areas, shared barbecues and community environment.
"There'll be droves of people and both our phone lines will go ballistic on New Year's Eve."
