Officially running from February 10 to February 17, Destination Queenstown chief executive Mat Woods expects we’ll start seeing an increase in Chinese visitors from next Thursday, many of whom will stay on to celebrate the full 15 days of the celebration.
The last time Chinese visitors were able to travel to the resort for their new year was in 2019.
While he doesn’t have any take on potential visitor numbers from China, Woods says local operators are reporting strong advanced bookings.
"We’re just hearing hotels don’t have any extra capacity [and tourism] operators are busy with bookings for February. I think a lot of operators are ready for it, and they’ve had to be."
The Rees boss Mark Rose says this month’s looking "extremely strong" at the Frankton Rd property.
"Occupancy will be the highest for any month we’ve had since pre-Covid and [it’s] probably the highest revenue."
2024 is the Year of the Dragon — in Chinese culture, it symbolises power, nobility, honour, luck and success.
