Information released by MBIE today shows a consistent picture for tourism but also illustrates the potential of the industry.
Total guest nights in commercial accommodation was up by 1% across the country for the year to December 2024, compared to the same period for 2023.
What we can see is welcome growth from international visitors with international guest nights up 8.1% for the year to December 2024. On the other hand, domestic guest nights were down slightly, by 2.6% over the past year which won't be a surprise for most as 2024 was a year of lower spend by kiwis. Putting this in perspective - Kiwis remain the biggest users of our commercial accommodation, making up 66% of total guest nights.
The information also illustrates comfortable room for growth with occupancy at about 53% across all accommodation types for the year.
Anecdotally I'd heard what a wonderful boost the Ironman World Championship was for Taupō in December. The release today shows that Taupō had the highest growth of international guest nights of any RTO, up 30% or over 10,000 additional guest nights when you compare December 2023 to December 2024. I think this reinforces the power of hosting major events and their ability to drive positive visitation to our regions.
These results for accommodation are consistent with the overall position of the industry and, above all, indicates our capacity to grow tourism on a balanced basis while strengthening tourism's overall contribution to the economy and to our regions.