Destination Queenstown chief executive Tony Everitt said, while official statistics were some weeks away from release, the overall theme of anecdotal comments was the festive season "appeared to be perhaps just a little bit mixed".
"A number of businesses seem to be quite happy with their levels of business, although a few found it a bit challenging, viz a viz last year," Mr Everitt said.
"We probably did get some cancellations from the UK as a result of all the snow and the difficulty of all the flights getting out. The UK is an important market for us at this time of the year because the summer is when most of the Brits come to visit.
"On the other hand, the Australian market seems to be doing quite well. The extra flights are definitely helping. There seems to be a reasonable number of Kiwis in town and most of the other markets seem to be doing OK."
Mr Everitt said DQ's feeling was the resort might be up slightly in tourism trade on the previous summer, but it was "wait and see" until the statistics came out.
The Station manager, Kris Barrs, said numbers of people inquiring at the information and booking hub were "up slightly on last year, which is good given the rainy days which cancelled some activities".
An increase in Indian tourists during the summer season, as well as the traditional shoulder periods, was noticeable and welcome.
However, Mr Barrs said visitors seemed to be more money-conscious.
Instead of saying which activities they wanted to do, they were asking which activities they could do given a set amount of money.
New Zealand Hotel Council Queenstown chairwoman Penny Clark, also general manager of Goldridge Resort, said the general feeling about the festive season and the upcoming peak month among the 19 council members was "fairly positive".
There was no reason for hotels to offer discounted room rates, as it was business as usual, Ms Clark said.
"Everyone was ostensibly marginally up because, over that Christmas-New Year period, one is close to being full and the same will have applied this time around," she said.
"The equation is the revenue is slightly up. However, there are still plenty of rooms to sell in town - that New Year rush is over."
Winter conditions in the UK had not affected greatly the number of British visitors to the resort, although a couple of hotels had lost a group tour, she said.
Festive season demand `little bit mixed'> From Page 1Tracey Maclaren"It would be fair to say the English and Americans are down, if you classify normal Queenstown trading patterns.
But Europeans are still here.
"Aussies might be down slightly, with Queensland being in the mess it's in," Ms Clark said.
Queenstown Motel Association president Colin Chittock, also manager of Queenstown Gateway Apartments, said festive season business for the association's 30 members was "probably on a par with last year".
"The same people come to us every year. Most of us will be running around the high 90% [occupancy rate]."
Mr Chittock said he noticed more Southlanders were staying during the festive period, compared with previous years, but international-visitor numbers were steady.
"I think it's going to be an interesting two or three months. Some [member motels] do have some good bookings for February."
Real Journeys Queenstown operations manager Tracey Maclaren said the operator was feeling "very comfortable", with numbers across products "better than predicted" and up 6% to 10% on the previous corresponding period.
"No-one is sure how long this peak is going to last, with people returning to work, but we'll wait and see. February [is] very hard to know, with short lead times and people making holiday decisions quite late - that seems to be the trend."
Real Journeys had seen a slight increase in numbers of New Zealand holidaymakers, who were making the difference on cruises and farm tours, Ms Maclaren said.
Ngai Tahu Tourism southern region general manager David Kennedy said weather conditions had been challenging, but Shotover Jet and Dart River Safaris Jet had a successful festive season.
"If you took out some of the weather factors, it would be on a par with last year.
"Normally, when people book a long-haul trip from the UK they plan it well in advance and come anyway.
We've noticed a bit of a decline in UK visitors, but that's also potentially partly due to them delaying their trips until the Rugby World Cup, so we kind of expected a drop-off in UK visitors."
Mr Everitt said the season looked set to peak in late January, although traditionally February was the biggest month of the year.
"The anecdotes we're getting from our members at the moment is the peak is looking relatively robust."
