Not since Easter four years ago, when Ed Sheeran drew people to Dunedin in droves, has the city been so busy over the autumn public holiday, Otago Motel Association president Pete Firns says.
And while for Queenstown tourism heavyweights this year’s Easter was only a dry run for busier times to come, the streets started to fill up over the holiday in the resort town too.
Ahead of the four-day break Air New Zealand listed Queenstown as New Zealand’s top spot, followed by Nelson in second and Dunedin in third, as the busiest regional destinations for the break.
And accommodation providers the Otago Daily Times spoke to yesterday said the predicted influx occurred.
Mr Firns, who also owns 538 Great King Motel, said another Forsyth Barr Stadium event, this time the Highlanders Super Rugby Pacific match against the Hurricanes on Saturday, might have drawn the biggest number of people to Dunedin over Easter.
"For us it was primarily Saturday night," Mr Firns said.
"We were fully booked last night and I believe most motels around central Dunedin were as well."
Dunedin was not a big Easter destination, unless the city hosted a major event, he said.
But this had been the best of the six years he had been in the business in the city "with the exception of the Ed Sheeran year", he said.
"Usually, my experience is that we see more people leaving town for Easter than we have coming into town — unless we have an event on."
Dunedin Palms Motel owner and former Otago Motel Association president Alex Greenan said his experience was different, but he came very close to turning on his "no vacancy" sign for the first time in a while, despite his fears the sign would have "rusted up".
Easter provided a "short, sharp pick-up", but guest numbers would drop away again, Mr Greenan said.
For the month of April his business would hit about 60% of a "normal" April, but for the Easter holidays he was "at least 90% back to what we were".
On Friday and Saturday there were a lot of "last-minute bookings", Scenic Hotel Southern Cross general and area manager Richard de Graaf said.
"The rugby was on, the Red light had turned to Orange — I think that gives people a bit of a sense of freedom," he said.
"Between the two hotels, we probably had ... 50 or 60 last-minute bookings on the day."
Dunedin Venues Management Ltd chief executive Terry Davies said about 7500 people turned up to watch the Highlanders play the Hurricanes on Saturday.
And the South Island Surfing Championships also drew crowds to St Clair.
But in Queenstown, Friday and Saturday were at another level.
It was "fairly busy", Novotel Queenstown general manager Jim Moore said.
But there were only New Zealanders in the resort, and it had capacity for upcoming school holidays, Mr Moore said.
The Rees Hotel chief executive Mark Rose said visitors began arriving on Friday and there were queues in the streets again, which he had not seen for a while.
The upswing was helping Queenstown businesses get ready for school holidays and the snow in late-June and July, Mr Rose said.
The Rees Hotel had gone from more than 110,000 guests a year to fewer than 10,000 over the pandemic and changing course would take work beyond Easter crowds.
"It’s lovely to see, and it’s great to get us started, but there’s a lot more to be done," he said.
"I need 30 more staff if I can open up the whole hotel in July, and I have no idea where they are going to come from."
- Additional reporting Wyatt Ryder
