After a dry start to the winter season, snowfall is finally picking up and so are visitor numbers.
A Cardrona Alpine Resort spokesperson said they had seen higher numbers this year compared with last year, despite the lower snow fall.
Destination Queenstown and Lake Wānaka Tourism chief executive Matt Woods said commercial bed nights were up 5% in July.
They had also noticed an increase in transtasman visitors during winter, rather than mostly domestic visitors.
The unpredictability of the snow season had been a disappointment, but Mr Woods said the opening of the Soho Basin could go towards explaining this year’s success, regardless of conditions.
"People are coming down to check out some of that new terrain," he said.
"It has been unfortunate that it’s been a lean start to the snow season and so areas like Soho haven’t benefited from that natural snow."
Criffel Peak View accommodation owner Caroline Holland has been in the business for years and hosts many families and individuals visiting for the ski season.
She had noticed a decline in families and domestic visitors coming to stay for the winter season.
"We don’t have the families coming that we used to have. We used to be super busy with families in July school holidays," she said.
"... it’s too expensive for a family with a couple of kids for a week — it’s 10 grand basically."
What she had seen was a spike in enthusiastic skiers from East Asian countries including Taiwan, Korea, and China.
There were also many visitors from all over Australia with a noticeable decline in domestic skiers.
Ms Holland said she thought the high cost of skiing paired with the inconsistency of snowfall had put many skiers off.
"The trouble is that when they come, and it’s a bit of an average ski season like this year, it puts them off," she said.
"Last year was quite a good ski season, but we didn’t have the people, because the year before wasn’t good."
This year had been better for Ms Holland as the accommodation had strong bookings from August.
Mr Woods said it was too soon to tell if this year was a slow snow year as the snow storms were picking up.
"It’s too early to say if it’s a lean snow season, it’s been a lean start, but we’re seeing those storms starting to roll in now."
He said there had been demand with the investment RealNZ had made, especially with the newly built Soho Basin.
