Long weekends, school holidays gives boost to Southern tourism

Anzac Day, Easter and the school holidays combined this year to create a “recipe for success” for southern tourism and there may be another business boom on the horizon. Photo / Hamish Clark

Anzac Day, Easter and the school holidays combined this year to create a “recipe for success” for southern tourism and there may be another business boom on the horizon.

The proximity of the two public holidays combined with school holidays this year to make both Dunedin and southern destinations very busy.

Businesses spoken to by the Otago Daily Times yesterday said they remained in a recovery period, but they were grateful for the cash injection as trading improved.

The tourism bump comes as New Zealand Rugby has announced a return to international matches at Forsyth Barr Stadium over winter and Queenstown gears up for the return of international visitors.

Larnach Castle director Norcombe Barker said last month had been a terrible month for business and the recent increase in traffic had provided some “real relief”.

Easter was generally one of the castle’s busiest periods, but Anzac Day did not usually fare so well as there were trading limitations, Barker said.

Outside of Ferg Burger in Queenstown over the weekend. Photo / Hamish Clark

However, this year Anzac Day had been a success as it lined up with many other factors, he said.

The two public holidays coinciding, combined with school holidays and the Wild Dunedin festival, had more people doing tourist activities.

The cafe had been struggling with seating limits so the shift to the Orange Covid-19 traffic light setting had been timely as well.

Barker held concerns about how long people would be interested in domestic tourism, but this month had proven business was still going well.

In Queenstown, The Rees Hotel and Luxury Apartments chief executive Mark Rose said the combination of public holidays in close succession and the school holidays had been a “recipe for success”.

Most of the bookings had come from New Zealanders travelling domestically.

The stretch had been one of the busiest times the town had experienced in the last two years.

Arrowtown had also been “packed”. With international travel back soon things were looking up for the tourism industry, he said.

Edgewater Lake Wanaka general manager Catherine Bone said the town had been very busy.

It was not back up to pre-Covid levels, but the busy period had provided a small and helpful cash injection, she said.

Steamer Wharf in Queenstown over the weekend. Photo / Hamish Clark

Business South chief executive Mike Collins said the increase in business had been welcomed by members.

However, things were not all better yet. Many operations still struggled with staffing as employees were sick with Covid-19.

NZR announced yesterday the All Blacks would play Ireland at Forsyth Barr Stadium on July 9, as part of the 10-match 2022 Steinlager Series.

Dunedin was the only city in the South Island to host in the series, and it was expected the 28,000-capacity game would sell out.

Enterprise Dunedin economic development manager Fraser Liggett estimated the match could be worth more than $8million to the city’s economy.

Otago Motel Association president Pete Firns, who is also the owner of Dunedin’s 538 Great King Motel, said the match was welcome news for the city’s accommodation businesses.

“I strongly suspect you’ll see a lot of no vacancy signs around the place on July 9.”

Since the drop to Orange, bookings had picked up, but it was still a long time until the match so “we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves”.