Chinese visitors help fill rooms in New Zealand hotels, motels

WELLINGTON - A surge in the number of Chinese visitors helped boost business in New Zealand's commercial accommodation sector by 6.1 percent in the year to the end of August, the government statistics agency said Wednesday.

Figures from Statistics New Zealand also showed that international guest nights in hotels and motels were up 13.4 percent year on year in the month of August.

International visitor arrivals hit a record 3.36 million in the August year, with holiday arrivals up 13 percent, Associate Tourism Minister Paula Bennett said in a statement.

"It's particularly pleasing to see particularly strong growth in our biggest spending visitors, with hotel stays up 14.8 percent, compared to holiday park guest nights up 11.1 percent," said Bennett.

"Tourism makes an important contribution to local communities through jobs and helping local businesses to grow and is critical to New Zealand's economic success."

Figures from Statistics New Zealand last month showed Chinese and Australian travelers drove an annual record in New Zealand visitor numbers for the year to the end of August.

The biggest changes in visitor arrivals by country of residence between the August years were from China (up 83,700 to 404,200), Australia (up 81,100 to 1.38 million) and the United States (up 30,000 to 266,300).