Australians lead visitor bounceback

International tourist number rebounded more than expected in April, following a slump after the Christchurch earthquake in February, but visitor numbers from north Asia are still half those of April last year.

Wellington hotel and tourism operators are seeing a definite pick-up in trade from Australia, especially with a strong Australian currency making New Zealand an attractive destination.Nationally, seasonally adjusted visitor arrivals rose 8 per cent between March and April 2011, Statistics New Zealand figures show.

The monthly improvement followed a 12 per cent dive between January and March, because of the Christchurch earthquake in February. But the big quake in Christchurch has put off visitors from Japan and Korea, made worse by the quake and tsunami in Japan in early March. The Japanese market is expected to take months to recover.Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said the figures were a "pretty good result, though there are some problem areas" and better than expected.

Australian arrivals were up 8100 on the same month last year. But bookings for the ski season from Australia were lower than last year's record levels and bookings were coming in later, probably in part because of the quakes, Mr Bowler said.Visitor numbers in the full year were up just 1 per cent, but given the quakes and other challenges for the industry "we are not in such bad shape", he said.

Wellington's Boomrock Lodge owner Johnny Eastwick says it saw a definite pick-up in clients from Australia with a corporate group of 100 last month. The group chose Wellington, including a trip to Boomrock, over other South Pacific destinations, which was "fantastic", Mr Eastwick said.

Boomrock was gearing up for the Rugby World Cup with customers expected to hit 8000 to 10,000 this year, compared with a standard year of about 6000. Mr Eastwick said bookings were solid in the cup period.

The upmarket lodge hosts conferences but also puts on activities such as driving on a car track and shooting. Companies were starting to spend more on activities beyond food and wine as budgets loosened.

Central Wellington Novotel hotel general manager Philip Hilton said the hotel had been "surprisingly busy" this month, despite concerns about occupancy levels at the start of the month.Australian visitor numbers were also up after marketing efforts by Positively Wellington Tourism earlier in the year.

Australians tended to stay just for a night or two, using Wellington as a gateway for the rest of the country. Airfares from Australia to Wellington were "competitive", he said, though it is cheaper to fly to Auckland. Air New Zealand's code share with Virgin Australia starts in July and Wellington was expected to get its fair share of any lift in traffic from that.

ANZ economist Mark Smith said the Canterbury earthquakes appeared to have been a sizeable deterrent to Asian visitors.Reassuringly, numbers were rebounding from Australia, Britain and Germany, but were still down on levels from three months earlier, Mr Smith said.

"Given seismic events and the high New Zealand dollar we do not envisage significantly better times for the tourism sector until the Rugby World Cup."ASB economist Jane Turner said the bounce back in visitor arrivals was encouraging, suggesting the Christchurch quake may not have a long-lasting impact on tourism.

* Tourism Rebound International visitor numbers were up a seasonally adjusted 8 per cent in April, compared with March.Figures were boosted by more tourists from Malaysia with the start of a new route by AirAsiaX from Malaysia to Christchurch in April.

The later timing of Easter and Australian school holidays this year also added to the rise in April.Tourist numbers fell 12 per cent between February and March, when the industry was hard hit by the Christchurch earthquake on February 22. April: 197,800 visitors (unadjusted) 5 per cent higher than in April 2010.

Source = stuff.co.nz