Bumper summer as tourism continues rebound
Queenstown businesses have enjoyed a strong summer so far, with hundreds of thousands of visitors flooding into the resort town over the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Some 156,329 domestic passengers travelled through Queenstown Airport in December, up slightly from the 154,998 in December 2023. There was a significant increase in internationals though, up from 83,444 to 92,477 in December 2024, as the overseas tourism market continues its recovery from the pandemic years and subsequent inflationary cost-of-living crisis.
Around 152,062 domestic travellers are expected to use the airport across January, along with 94,082 internationals. Tens of thousands more will arrive and depart on the roads, with tourism boosted by events such as the Gibbston Valley Summer Concert Series, which welcomed 14,000 locals and visitors over the weekend.
Skyline sales manager Richard Crouch says it has been a busy few months, with tourists and locals hitting the hill on the iconic tourism giant's new gondola.
"I wouldn't say we're doing record numbers but we're getting close to it from a visitation perspective and on the luge as well. They keep on coming, which is good," he says.
"We now have the ability to move more people quicker, but that said, we're constrained at the top with the construction that's going on, so we're very mindful we don't just pile them in and transfer the queues from the bottom to the top."
Skyline will move operations into its new building at the top of the hill in April next year. But that's only stage one. Once it's settled in, the old building will be demolished and rebuilt. The whole project should be completed by the first quarter of 2029.
International boost
Crouch says discretionary spending has also been tracking well in the retail store, café and restaurant, and late January / February is also expected to be busy as Chinese visitors hit town to celebrate the Luna New Year.
"There's a 10-day period where we're already at capacity in the restaurant. We don't have a seat for lunch or dinner. That's a 250-capacity with two lunch sittings and three dinner sittings."
Queenstown was the top-searched destination for Chinese visitors on booking.com for 27 January to 9 February 2025. In 2024, Skyline welcomed 12,500 Chinese visitors for that period.
International visitors have also been the top customers at outdoor sports store Small Planet Sports, says co-owner Yan Lassueur.
"Australians and Americans are two pretty big markets coming through. The US dollar is so strong compared to ours at the moment," he says. "We've not had so many kiwis. The locals sure, but not ones from further afield. It doesn't mean they're not out there hiking, they're just not buying stuff from us at present."
Lassueur says it has been a decent summer, with footwear sales particularly strong.
"We're happy. We're not flying but we're definitely happy enough. It seems to have been a busy summer for the town. We're not back to pre-Covid levels but it's definitely one of the better summers we've had in the last couple of years."
Chamber's view
That's pretty much the sentiment around town says Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce boss Sharon Fifield.
"Generally it's been very good, lots of people around and businesses doing well," she says. "There's a bit of a drop off this week and we're hearing that while the peaks are really good, the drop offs are still quite hard. So, things like the Gibbston Valley Concert and the New Zealand Open [at Arrowtown's Millbrook Resort in February] are really important to smooth out those quieter periods."
Fifield says the Chamber will be advocating to get more events downtown, following the cancellation of Luma, which had replaced Queenstown Winter Festival as a drawcard.
And with more tourists comes greater pressure on infrastructure, so the Chamber is also waiting with bated breath for more news on the Government's Regional Deals initiative early this year.
