Another record’s just fallen at Queenstown Airport.
According to passenger statistics, the airport had its busiest January on record.
A total of 249,916 people moved through the airport, 84,737 internationals and 158,309 domestic — that’s up from 238,786 last January, and 236,283 in January, 2020.
And, anecdotally, it seems February may also have been one for the books.
Queenstown’s Novotel GM Jim Moore says while January was ‘‘pretty good’’ at the hotel, ‘‘February was even busier’’.
‘‘Even pre-Covid, February was probably our busiest month of the year.’’
While numbers last month were boosted by the return of Chinese visitors celebrating their New Year, Moore says they’ve also welcomed huge numbers of Americans, a few Europeans and ‘‘a lot of domestic’’.
‘‘I think, for us, anyway, February was a record-breaker.’’
Hilton Queenstown GM Chris Ehmann says they’ve been run off their feet over the past two months, believing Queenstown’s back to pre-Covid demand, if not higher.
‘‘I think, certainly, Queenstown’s back in its stride.
‘‘Most of the demand we’ve seen to date has more been from individual travellers and not yet so much group tours and C&I [conference & incentive] — and China’s hardly travelling — so it’s going really well.’’
Moore says Novotel compares itself with five or six other major hotels — last month the occupancy over the whole group was about 95%.
Ehmann says while things will slow down over the next couple of months, forward bookings are “certainly comparable to pre-Covid, without a doubt”.
Meanwhile, Tourism New Zealand, NZSki and Destination Queenstown are all about to launch winter marketing campaigns in Aus.
