The late arrival of the Sun Princess to Dunedin yesterday has left a major tourism operator out of pocket and questioning the commitment of cruise ships to the city.
Transtasman visitor numbers increased by 7.6% in November compared to the corresponding month last year, Statistics New Zealand reports.
A 21-minute film showcasing Queenstown's skifields, back-country skiing and skydiving has won Best Picture in the Outdoor Film Festival in China - with the exposure the beginning of a "10-year project" to increase visitors to Queenstown during winter.
Queenstown has secured several key visitor industry events for next year, demonstrating the resort's growing appeal as a business tourism destination.
Applications for Trenz 2012, to be held in Queenstown from May 7 to 10, opened earlier this month - with delegates from this year's inaugural Queenstown event hailing it "the best" event of its kind yet.
Closer working ties with the archrival across the Tasman will help grow New Zealand's $23 billion tourism industry, the Tourism Industry Association New Zealand says.
Lower than usual advanced holiday bookings in Queenstown could add to what has been a difficult year in the resort.
Queenstown stands to benefit from a $9 million Asia-Pacific marketing boost by partners Tourism New Zealand and Jetstar, as well as Air New Zealand's bolstered capacity on its Rotorua-Christchurch route and a trial service between Christchurch, Mt Cook and the resort.
The Southern Lakes region - including Queenstown, Wanaka and Fiordland - has cracked the Lonely Planet's Top 10 Regions in its Best in Travel 2012, published today, the only New Zealand region to feature in the new book.
Less than 12 months after taking over The Spire boutique hotel, Queenstown sisters Amelia and Lucy Gain have collected three industry awards.
Vinotourism may be the next big thing to hit Queenstown if a special forum being held in Queenstown next week is anything to go by.
The University of Otago has deleted the bachelor of tourism from its roster of conferred degrees, and the qualification will revert to a major subject in the bachelor of commerce degree.
Sparked by a 2008 river-boarding death near Queenstown, new safety regulations for the adventure tourism and outdoor education industries will take effect from November 1.
Several campaigns are about to get under way aiming to encourage more summer visitors to Wanaka.
A total of 162 submissions have been received by Lakes Environmental regarding the float-plane operation proposed for Lake Wakatipu - 135 in opposition.
The first and last impressions of Queenstown of the 1.89 million visitors to the resort every year have never been more important in this age of instant global communication, but is customer service in the resort as exceptional as it could or should be?
Lower guest-night figures for July show that despite the welcome arrival of snow, Queenstown and the wider Otago region were still suffering in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes.
Arrivals in August were up 4.7% on the same month last year and just over half of the increase could be attributed to Rugby World Cup visitors arriving before the tournament opened.
China is New Zealand's only growing top-five tourism market and by 2014 will have eclipsed traditional heavyweights the United States and Britain to take the No2 spot, according to government forecasts.
Records will be broken when the largest number of cruise ships and passengers to visit Dunedin arrive this season, allaying fears over the impact of earthquake-damaged Lyttelton.
