Chief executive Mike Theelen said the trial was one of several initiatives the council was working on to improve traffic flows, reduce congestion and provide a "more pleasant environment'' in central Queenstown.
Mr Theelen said the council was considering possible locations for a temporary, large-scale parking site in Frankton to offer a shuttle service in and out of the CBD, offering an alternative for people who worked in the town centre.
At present, parking was at a "premium'' there, with commuters competing for a limited number of parks with visitors and residents making shopping and business trips.
The council was already implementing a strategy to free up more parks for short stays and would be providing a dedicated parking area for campervans to reduce congestion on narrow downtown streets, Mr Theelen said.
Ahead of the trial, commuters were being asked to take part in a survey asking, among other things, what would incentivise them to leave their cars and continue to town on a bus.
Questions included how much people would be prepared to pay for "parking and a daily return trip by shuttle'' between Queenstown and the park, with options ranging from $2.50 to between $8 and $10.
Property and infrastructure principal planner Tony Pickard said the survey was designed to find out if there was demand for a park and ride service, and how any such service could work.
"We've put [a trial] in our implementation plan - we'd like to see something up and running before Christmas.
"What we're doing is really just a precursor to that to work out what demand there might be. We need to know that people would come and use it.''
Provided there was anecdotal support, it was likely the trial would run for at least 12 months.
The council was looking at potential large-scale parking sites around Grant Rd and near the BP roundabout on State Highway 6 and was also talking to public transport operators to get information about the potential cost of the service.
"At the moment, I would see it being an established operator [running the service] rather than the council buying a bus and doing it themselves.''
Mr Pickard said he was aware of other centres operating park and ride, but Queenstown was, in some respects, unique.
"Queenstown is ... quite a small town but it's got quite a lot of transport and traffic difficulties.
"All these elements that we're going to look at ... car pooling, changing the parking in Queenstown, park and ride, the regional council are getting on to reviewing public transport, I don't think any one of them is the silver bullet.
"All these solutions have to be integrated - they have to be joined up for them to work.''
The survey, which closes on August 22, is available online at qldc.govt.nz.
