Queenstown's total visitor nights were up by almost 3% in December 2010, compared with the previous December, but testing business conditions seem set to continue through summer, Destination Queenstown (DQ) chief executive Tony Everitt says.
According to Statistics New Zealand's December Commercial Accommodation Monitor, released on Thursday, total visitor nights were up 2.9% 224,493.
International guest visitor nights were up 2.9% to 161,783 and domestic visitors up 2.8% to 62,710.
Mr Everitt said overall, results for the whole year of 2010 compared to 2009 showed some significant increases.
Total guest nights were up 7.3% to 2,514,785.
International guest nights were up 11.3% to 1,763,226, while domestic guest nights were down 0.9% to 751,559.
Mr Everitt said the figures were a pleasing result in a challenging business environment.
"Ever-increasing flight capacity and the hard work by our local tourism industry and DQ to motivate visitors to travel to Queenstown have been significant contributors to our year-on-year increase.
"Our December figures are quite robust considering we were still experiencing some knock-on effects of the Canterbury earthquake and two of our key markets, the United Kingdom and United States, were in the midst of severe snow and travel disruptions,," he said.
However, he said that while guest nights were up in December the industry was still seeing considerable variability among accommodation types - hotels and backpackers had done comparatively well but it was still a challenging time for motels.
Queenstown Top 10 Holiday Park Creeksyde director and DQ board member Erna Spijkerbosch believed holiday park visitors last December were on a par with those in December 2009.
"Response rates from the holiday park sector to the Commercial Accommodation Monitor are down, which has resulted in a slight skewing of figures."
Mr Everitt said based on anecdotal feedback, testing business conditions looked set to continue through the summer months.
"Major weather events around the globe, particularly in Australia which is our biggest market, are impacting on travelling interest."
