Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher confirmed the decision was made at an executive committee meeting last week.
Mr Kircher revealed to the Otago Daily Times at the end of June the council had been approached by three developers interested in building hotel accommodation at Oamaru Harbour.
He said this week the council was interested in understanding the accommodation market "from a capacity point of view, but also a quality point of view; what are the opportunities for us, taking into account what we've already got?
"Anecdotally, we believe that some of the coach tours aren't coming here because they can't get enough quality beds in one place,'' Mr Kircher said.
"Equally, it [the study] could come up with a finding that we don't have enough backpackers, or something.''
Tourism was growing in North Otago, but the consultant would study "the current situation in the market, expectations, trends, what's happening with tourism on that regional and local level''.
"The big challenge continues to be the seasonality,'' Mr Kircher said.
"At the peak, we've got an absolute shortage, but if that peak is relatively short, you don't fix that by adding a whole lot of capacity because then it obviously misses out on that quiet season.''
The study would be funded from the council's economic development discretionary fund. A council spokeswoman said it was expected to be completed by the end of the year.
