Queenstown's holiday parks are usually fully booked well in advance of the busy Christmas-New Year period but this year bookings have come late, and there is still space available for campers.
Some of the region's camping grounds are already fully booked for New Year's Eve, but the holiday parks owned by the Queenstown Lakes District Council have experienced an unusually slow pre-season.
"At this stage, we are only 80% booked for the Christmas and New Year period. The domestic market is not travelling much, and many overseas visitors tend to show up without prior bookings," holiday parks manager Greg Hartshorne said.
"This will be my 16th Christmas in the job, and it has been by far the most quiet in terms of bookings," he said.
While the Queenstown Lakeview Holiday Park and the Arrowtown Born of Gold Holiday Park are usually fully booked months in advance for the holidays, Mr Hartshorne said bookings had been coming in late all year, so he still expected both camps to be full, especially for New Year.
Both Creeksyde Queenstown Top 10 Holiday Park and Shotover Top 10 Holiday Park in Arthur's Point have had steady bookings, and both are already fully booked for New Year's Eve.
"New Zealanders tend to spend Christmas at home and then travel. So many will start showing up on Boxing Day or later, so we will have a busy holiday season," Shotover Top 10 Holiday Park co-owner Kenneth Mitchell said.
In Kingston, bookings have been at the same level as last year.
Kingston Motel & Holiday Park manager Robin Connolly said the holiday park was fully booked for New Year, but it still had a few spaces available for the rest of the Christmas period.
The rugby ground in central Queenstown has traditionally been used for camping over New Year to accommodate many of the extra visitors.
Some of the younger holidaymakers even go to Queenstown specifically to stay at the rugby ground.
But Greg Hartshorne said it was not certain it would be used this year.
"We only open the rugby ground for camping if all the region's camping grounds are full. At this stage we don't know if that will happen," he said.
