Winter Festival celebrations may have passed for another year, but with the opening of the Coronet Peak and Remarkables skifields last week, will the winter business momentum continue? Joe Dodgshun talked to some retailers early this week to find out how busy town really is.
-Front-line salesperson for Info and Trackactivity booking centre
"People are really keen to get up the mountain, even when it's just the man-made snow. When the mountain was not open we had a lot of people who were booking other things, but definitely Winter Festival was a boost ... and we have had people booking trips to Snow Park every day since it opened. I've worked up on the mountain before ... and it could be good as long as the school holidays for Australia go well."
- Brazz bar and restaurant general manager
"Now that the mountains are open there seems to be a lot more people around the town ... A lot of Australians and a lot of groups of energetic young people, which is great to see - it's pretty positive. I think if the forecasted snow comes and there's no more problems with ash, it will definitely be a good winter."
- Rentals technician for Quest Queenstown Snowcentre
"It's getting really busy ... We have almost rented everything and are running low on stock - we are getting a lot of people now the mountains are back and opening. Winter Festival is always good for Queenstown but as always Australians are our main clientele. [They came] on Wednesday as soon as they [NZSki] announced it and showed up all of Wednesday night and all of Thursday buying boards, boots and bindings as well as renting."
- Queenstown Job Agency owner
"We have not really seen a drop in people coming to register. I think most of the people in town for the season have arrived, but we are still getting people putting their heads around the door, which we like. Winter Festival was good for jobs and of course we have got the Winter Games coming up in terms of labour, but there's nothing much in between. I think most of the hospitality people are holding off and are reluctant of hiring staff ... but what we see is a flurry of tourists coming in and it's a bit of a panic with people coming to us wanting someone straight away."
- Buyer/retail manager of Browns Ski Shop
"It's definitely picked up and we are up on renting and looking into the positives rather than delving into the negatives. I think it will keep on getting better and the numbers will keep on coming as long as we can keep the ash cloud at bay. Every day is getting busier - we are humming, but not quite singing yet."
- Owner-operator of Humble Pie shop
"Winter Festival was a good couple of weeks but I still think it's still very good - the momentum has definitely carried on. With the advent of the skifields opening, everything is looking good and certainly everybody seems to be more buoyant around town."
- Owner-manager of Joe's Cafe
"There's definitely a lot more holiday-makers in town and lots of families, especially in the weekends - that's when we've been chock-a-block with people. Today [Monday] was always going to be a good test with the end of Winter Festival, but it has been a good day with lots of people coming who came in the weekend, so people are obviously here for a few weeks."
