Queenstown, NZ, Sees Increased International Visits

Good news for Queenstown, New Zealand, which received increased international attention thanks to the Lord of the Rings films and seems poised to be in the spotlight again when The Hobbit is released this winter: Figures released by Statistics New Zealand this month show strong growth in domestic visitors to the area for April 2012 as well as a recovery in international visitation. The Commercial Accommodation Monitor showed guest nights overall were up 8.5 percent (or 16,000) to 208,436 compared with April 2011.

Double digit growth for domestic visitors to Queenstown continued a summer trend with an increase of 15.2 percent to 84,366. International guest nights were up 4.3 percent to 124,071.

This was ahead of the national results which saw a decline of 2.5 percent domestic and 1.5 percent international visitors.

 

Photo of "Hobbiton" courtesy of Tourism New Zealand