As the last signs of winter slowly disappear from Queenstown's mountains, Destination Queenstown chief executive Tony Everitt says the resort's biggest spring snowfall in years was a "key contributor" to September's strong visitor numbers.
Statistics New Zealand's Commercial Accommodation Monitor (CAM) was released this week and showed the resort's total visitor nights for the month were up 9% to 196,686, international guests accounting for 68.1% of total visitors.
International visitor nights were up 9.5% to 133,970, and domestic visitor nights also increased, up 7.8% to 62,716 compared with September 2009.
Mr Everitt said several factors contributed to September's result, not least the spring snowfall, which extended the ski season.
"Conference and incentive activity was strong and there was also increased joint-venture marketing activity from the industry, Tourism New Zealand and Destination Queenstown in Australia, all of which contributed to filling extra air capacity," he said.
The result helped offset some earthquake-related cancellations, particularly from the Asian market, and ongoing tough economic conditions in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Queenstown Hotel Association chairman John McIlwain said it was "another great result" for Queenstown.
"Throughout the region, a boost in the [conference and incentive] market coupled with the ever-increasing flight capacity into the resort directly contributed to positive year-on-year growth for September.
"Moving forward, recent announcements on new routes out of Asia and China into both Christchurch and Auckland are likely to produce a positive spin-off for the region," Mr McIlwain said.
