Statistics New Zealand's commercial accommodation figures show Wanaka businesses logged a 7.2% drop in visitor nights in July compared with the same month last year.
Wanaka was down 4000 guest nights this July, a figure Lake Wanaka Tourism (LWT) general manager James Helmore labelled as "disappointing".
"We're always looking to try and beat our previous year's figure, so we need to do better," he said.
Domestic visitor figures had dropped significantly, while a very slow start to the ski season had also contributed to the drop in visitor-night numbers, he said.
Snowfalls on skifields during late June and July had been light and the fields failed to attract traditional bookings for ski holidays.
Guest-night figures could have been even worse if Wanaka had not hosted winter snowsports events, such as the Junior World Championships, Mr Helmore said.
The global financial crisis continued to impact on tourism figures, he said.
Mr Helmore acknowledged LWT needed to work harder and called for a more collaborative approach from Wanaka's skifields.
LWT increased its expenditure on winter marketing 30% this year, but visitor figures were dependent on the weather conditions and good snow, he said.
