WELLINGTON, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- There were 39 million guest nights spent in short-term commercial accommodation in New Zealand in the year ended July 2017, an increase of 1.3 million on the previous July year, the country's statistic department Stats NZ said on Tuesday.
The month of July 2017 was relatively quiet, with a modest increase in guest nights of 1.4 percent compared with July 2016, Stats NZ said, adding that both international and domestic guest nights had small increases.
The July month caught the tail end of the Lions rugby tour with matches in Wellington and Auckland following eight matches in June, it said.
"The effect of the Lions tour on international guest nights hasn't been as visible in July as it was in June," accommodation statistics manager Melissa McKenzie said in a statement.
Motels benefited the most from the increase in international guest nights. International visitors spent 13.9 percent more nights in motels in July 2017 than in July 2016, McKenzie said, adding that motel international guest nights have now been increasing for two years when compared with the same month of the previous year.
Of all the regions, guest nights increased the most in the Bay of Plenty, up 5.4 percent in July 2017 compared with July 2016, according to Stats NZ.
Auckland was notably flat, but this comes off July 2016 that was 8.4 percent higher than July 2015, it said, adding that increases occurred in 9 of the 12 regional areas.
