May 2016

Two Years Of Guest Night Growth & Five Times Reported Guest Nights

Visit Whanganui is thrilled to announce two years (24 consecutive months) of year end monthly growth in commercial visitor nights.

“We have variations in guest nights by month compared to the previous year but this measure looks at the percentage growth over the previous 12 months” said Lyn Cheyne, Promotion and Marketing Manager. “This shows the long term trend for Whanganui and reflects well on current advertising and promotional campaigns. In actual numbers we have moved from approximately 167,000 commercial guest nights at the end of December 2013 to 192,000 nights at the end of December 2015. In dollars – the 6.5% growth over that period is estimated to be an additional $8.7 million into Whanganui’s economy.”

These increases are reflected in both domestic (other New Zealand visitors) and international visitors to Whanganui.

These statistics don’t include motorhome, B&B, freedom campers, vacation homes, Airbnb and visitors staying with friends and family. Whanganui has now signed up to Qrious Voyager – a monthly tourism report that captures the additional information via anonymous mobile phone movements.

The first report was available yesterday and shows Whanganui has at least five times the visitors compared to previous commercial accommodation only reports. December 2015 under the previous MBIE Commercial Accommodation Monitor reports registered approximately 11,500 guest nights in commercial accommodation. Tracking mobile phone movements, the figure for December 2015 is over 96,000 – 8 times as much shown and potentially this high as a result of the Suzuki Series Cemetery Circuit event.

The new data also shows visitors are staying an average across all visitors of almost 3 days in the district.

ENDS

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