Kiwis drive increase in January guest nights

Domestic guest nights in short-term commercial accommodation in January 2008 were 6 percent higherthan in January 2007, Statistics New Zealand said today.

The Canterbury region had the largest increase indomestic guest nights, followed by Wellington and the Bay of Plenty. International guest nights were 4percent lower than in January 2007.

Total guest nights in January 2008 were 2 percent higher than in January 2007, reaching 4.5 million guestnights, the highest monthly total since the survey began in July 1996.

January is traditionally the peakmonth for commercial accommodation.

Five of the 12 regions also showed the highest guest nights total onrecord, led by Canterbury, Auckland and Otago.

In January 2008, seven of the 12 regions recorded higher guest nights than in January 2007, led byCanterbury, Auckland and the Bay of Plenty.

The Hawke's Bay/Gisborne region recorded the largestdecrease in guest nights over the same period.

Caravan parks/camping grounds and hotels were the only accommodation types to show increases in guestnights in January 2008, compared with January 2007.

Caravan parks/camping grounds increased 5 percentto their highest monthly guest nights total on record