Chinese visitors help drive growth in NZ accommodation sector

Growing numbers of Chinese visitors helped drive a boom in New Zealand's accommodation sector last year, according to figures from the government statistics agency Thursday.

Guest nights across the country were up 5.8 percent last year, compared to 2012, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Last year ended on a high note too with guest nights in December up 7.1 percent year on year, making it the ninth straight month of growth.

The earthquake-battered Canterbury region and neighboring Otago on the east of the South Island were the main regions contributing to the national increase in December, business indicators manager Neil Kelly said in a statement.

Domestic guest nights were up 5.4 percent year on year in December, and international guest nights were up 9.5 percent.

China drove record numbers of overseas visitors to New Zealand in both December and last year, according to figures from Statistics New Zealand last month.

Visitor arrivals were up 5 percent year on year in December to 402,500, with Chinese visitors providing the biggest source of growth, up 39 percent to 25,800.

China also contributed the biggest annual increase in visitors, with Chinese visitors up 15.7 percent to 264,864, followed by Australia, the United States and Germany.

Total visitor arrivals hit a record 2.86 million in last year, up 5 percent from 2013.