The valuable holiday park sector is devastated to be losing one of its most vital official datasets, Holiday Parks New Zealand chief executive Fergus Brown says.
Holiday parks account for more than a third (36 per cent) of New Zealand’s commercial accommodation capacity and provide more than 8 million guest nights a year to both international and domestic travellers.
However, the sector’s ability to measure its contribution to New Zealand’s economy will be severely compromised by the government decision to stop carrying out the monthly Accommodation Survey (also known as the Commercial Accommodation Monitor).
The survey provides information about commercial accommodation activity at national and regional levels. It also tracks visitor volumes and movements, providing guest night numbers, capacity, number of establishments and occupancy rates.
It has been carried out by Stats NZ for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment but is being discontinued from the end of September, as the result of a dispute between the two agencies.
HPNZ’s 300 member parks are hugely disappointed at the loss of this key data, says Fergus.
“The Accommodation Survey information allows holiday parks to benchmark their performance against other similar parks and regions, and against other types of accommodation. There are no other official sources for this type of information,” he says.
“Although the Accommodation Survey has some shortcomings, we cannot afford to be left without any measure of the sector’s performance. On behalf of all HPNZ members, I am calling on Stats NZ and MBIE to reverse this short-sighted decision.”
