At Eden Park Bed and Breakfast we had an excellent March and April with guests needing accommodation. This is shown with the highest number of international guest nights in Auckland, up 6%. Auckland will always be the gateway but with the aftermath of the earthquakes in Christchurch we have found an increasing number of clients not even thinking of going to the South Island. They want to stay in Auckland and do day trips. I feel that this might be an increasing trend with International arrivals. We started our yearly maintenance schedule this month and I have been in the painting mode so we concentrated on getting the interior white paint done. I am a fan of using oil based high gloss white paint on the skirting,scotia and architraves. And it looks very good. Although the paint smell is still strong in the house. Marlene is in Christchurch visiting the grandchildren so I have the house to myself. It’s lonely being by one self again.
Total guest nights fell 0.8% to 3.1 million in March from the same month a year ago.
The bulk of the decline came from a 3.6% drop in international visitor guest nights to 1.3m, with a sharper fall in South Island accommodation.
That was offset by a 1.4% gain in guest nights from New Zealanders to 1.8m.
The figures come after the Ministry of Tourism data showed 2.62m foreign visitors spent $5.64 billion locally in the year ended March
International guest nights decreased in eight of the country’s 12 regions in last month, led by Northland, down 25% and Otago, which fell 8%.

Domestic guest nights also increased in six regions. Bay of Plenty led the fall, down 6.6%, followed by Northland on 13%.
Auckland had the largest rise of about 7%.
Holiday parks bore the brunt, down 5.6%, followed by backpacker accommodation, which slipped 2.7%, and motels, with a dip of 2.1%.