Holiday boost for skifields

Fine weather and school holidays made for busy lifts at The Remarkables Ski Area, Queenstown,...
Fine weather and school holidays made for busy lifts at The Remarkables Ski Area, Queenstown, over the past two weeks. PHOTO: MATTHEW MCKEW
Queenstown Lakes skifields have had their busiest opening to the season, despite no foreigners being on the slopes.

But the domestic tourism boom is being met with scepticism as some tourism operators say they are preparing for a slowdown.

Business operators, tourism, retail and hospitality in the district have described visitor numbers for the two-week school-holiday period, which started on July 4, as "overwhelming".

NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson said last Friday was the busiest day in his seven years with the company, with 10,000 visiting Coronet Peak and The Remarkables.

“It’s definitely exceeded what we thought was going to happen."

NZSki had to rehire after cutting staff earlier in the year — about 200 were taken on in a variety of roles for the two weeks.

Things have been good enough that it has decided to keep The Remarkables open for an extra week, despite originally planning to open weekends only outside the school holidays.

Meanwhile, across the ranges, Cardrona and Treble Cone skifields have had "overwhelming" results for the school holidays.

“We are doing numbers similar to last year and of course did not forecast that," Cardrona Alpine Resort chief executive Bridget Legnavsky said.

The two resorts had increased staff by about 20 to 25% over the past week alone.

Mrs Legnavsky believed the unexpected crowds were due not only to visiting Kiwis who usually went offshore but also to New Zealanders who had returned home from living overseas, along with some who would usually only ski the North Island.

“It’s been quite overwhelming, actually, because as you can imagine we only prepared for half the market.”

The biggest day for both Cardrona and Treble Cone was July 14, when there were about 7500 skiers and snowboarders across both mountains.

Skifields were not the only sector reaping rewards — retail also had a spike in sales.

Assistant manager of Quiksilver Queenstown Chloe Jacobs said her shop had been making well over what they had budgeted for across the two-week period.

"It seems like Kiwi families are actually just happy to spend money because normally they’d spend that money on going on an overseas trip or something, but they are actually wanting to put back into the economy so they’re buying up big."

Manager of Queenstown’s Exchange Cafe Bex Hunter echoed that sentiment and said groups of "eight and 10" had been arriving in "droves".

"Heaps of kids. I’ve never sold so much off the kids’ menu.

"It’s awesome to have so many Kiwis in town, Kiwis that have never been to Queenstown before because it’s the first chance there’s no tourists."

In the coming weeks Ms Hunter was hoping for a second wave of holidaymakers wanting to avoid the school-break rush.

Owner of Wanaka’s Kai Whaka Pai restaurant Roger North said business was up 103% from the same time last year.

However, despite stable business over the past few weeks, the owner of Wanaka’s Lake Bar, Peter Byrne, urged caution.

He was expecting the arrival of the first shoulder season in two or three years.

"Those have been traditionally propped up in the last few years by overseas international visitors. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of New Zealanders around to fill the gaps, but they will only keep moving for so long.

"What we call the shoulder season was closing up and getting narrower and narrower down to literally maybe a week or two at a time. Where is now, it might be a couple of months."

Brona Parsons, co-owner of Wanaka establishments The Federal, Fedeli and Fudog, agreed with Mr Byrne’s comments about the high possibility of a shoulder season.

"... but hoping that’s not going to happen but kind of trying to be a bit realistic about what the future is going to look like."

hugh.collins@odt.co.nz

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