Queenstown's profile as an all-year tourist destination is continuing to grow rapidly, members of the resort's tourism organisation heard last week.
Guest nights and passenger numbers are up. However,
Destination Queenstown chairman Mark Quickfall humorously noted that the resort did not need two convention centres. One is being proposed by the Queenstown Lakes District Council and another was more recently announced by private developer Alastair Porter.
Destination Queenstown's chief executive Graham Budd recounted the organisation's campaigns from the past year at the organisation's annual meeting.
Members heard the past year had been positive for the tourism sector.
Destination Queenstown's numerous campaigns generated a significant increase in views to the organisation's website.
And from the site, there was an increase in visits to individual product listings and clicks to individual operator websites.
The resort is quickly biting into the country's holiday arrival percentage: in 2007 Queenstown's share of arrivals from Australia was 5%, compared with 17% in 2013.
Successes of 2013 so far included a successful Winter Festival, which came in under budget, although Mr Budd admitted it was a ''tough'' festival.
Other highlights were the highest-ever February guest nights and the launch of a Qantas and Emirates alliance enabling the airlines to share services between New Zealand and Australia for the next five years.
Mr Budd said Australian visitors were still the most numerous in Queenstown, but the number of Asian visitors was growing.
At the end of the meeting, Matt Hollyer was elected to the activities seat on the organisation's board and Stephen McLean was elected unopposed to the general seat.
A chairman will be elected at the first meeting of the new board.
