Tourist slump empties hotels

Press, 26 July 1989, Page 1

Tourist slump empties hotels

By

LES BLOXHAM

Christchurch’s top 12 hotels last month suffered their biggest downturn in visitors for years, leaving some with more than 70 per cent of their rooms empty.

Managers are keeping a close watch on staff levels and although so far, there have been no redundancies, employees who leave are not being replaced. The chairman of the Canterbury branch of the Accommodation Council, Mr Barry Rozynski, said yesterday that the hotels had suffered a 3000 shortfall in visitors last month. Some had been running with occupancy rates as low as 29 per cent, he said. The branch has been monitoring visitor trends in the city for almost three years and although occupancy' rates have been affected by a big increase in new hotel rooms, June is the first month to show a fall in tourist numbers. The problem has been caused by an unexpected slump in the Japanese holiday market. “It has been a big disappointment,” said Mr Rozynski. “Noone foresaw it — it’s a real worry." The sudden decline in New Zealand’s third-biggest tourist market comes on top of a downturn in visitors from Australia, the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Pacific Islands. The Tourist and Publicity Department is so concerned that it has asked its travel commissioner in Tokyo, Mr Richard Bollard, to provide an urgent report on the likely reasons for the slide.

Air New Zealand and Japan Airlines have hurriedly prepared a joint marketing incentive offering Japanese tourists six days in New Zealand with air fares and

accommodation in August and September for $2400 — about 40 per cent off the normal cost. The department is pouring $l.B million into a promotional campaign aimed at attracting mainly younger Japanese to New Zealand. Mr Gowan Patton, the department’s assistant general manager, marketing, said he was worried by the downturn. “It was quite unexpected,” he said. “We thought the market would continue to bubble along at its previously steady growth rate of 20 per cent.” The total number of Japanese visitors to New Zealand increased 19.4 per cent to 95,457 for the year ended March 31. . However, the latest Tourist and Publicity Department statistics — for April — show that the holiday sector was down 6.8 per cent on April, 1988 figures. The over-all growth for the month was only 0.6 per cent — a mere 40 extra visitors on April, 1988’s total of 7160. The department’s statistics for May and June have not yet been released, but if New Zealand international airport returns are anything to go by, they are likely to produce a grim picture. Mr Hugh McCarroll, Christchurch Airport’s general manager (operations), said total arrivals from Japan during May were down about 700 on the same month a year ago. Over-all, visitor arrivals at New Zealand’s three international airports were down about 5 per cent. Christchurch, however, had had a 10 per cent fall during the month, he said.