Queenstown ski fields gear up for early opening as tourism surges

“All of that combined has meant we are louder and more visible in the world, and therefore more people have chosen New Zealand with their discretionary spend.”

Speaking to the Herald at Trenz, the annual trade show held at the New Zealand International Convention Centre, de Monchy said there was optimism among operators in attendance.

He said he had spoken with tourism operators who were investing more in their businesses, hiring more staff, and remaining measured in the face of rising fuel costs and the war in Iran.

With the industry now in its off-season, de Monchy said the sector’s March performance was a good indicator.

“Seasonality is still a challenge for the industry, so more year-round business improves productivity, employment, all those things.

“We particularly promote winter and skiing in Australia and China, and we’ve already decided to upweight that activity that’s going to give those looking at booking a bit more urgency.”

De Monchy said the sector targeted Australia because of its ability to compete with domestic offerings, with travellers now more interested in skiing following the Winter Olympics.

While the summer season has benefited from growing numbers of travellers from the United States, converting them to travel to New Zealand during the off-season is a harder challenge.

De Monchy said roughly 43% of Americans who visit New Zealand do so during summer to escape their winter, but choose to favour their domestic options in the opposite season.

“There’s still endless opportunity if I think about the fact that we are less than 1% of their international travel. But at the same time, the New Zealand brand is highly desired, and the appeal is high.

“We’ve also got a bit of a tailwind with the US dollar versus the New Zealand dollar, so fundamentally, there’s a lot of potential out of the market.”

NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson said the business had received a strong response to its season pass sales.

“They’re mainly our regional markets, so Otago and Canterbury. We were really strong in Australia, but we’ve noticed in the last couple of weeks that that’s flattened off just a touch,” Anderson said.

“We think that’s just a little bit of uncertainty around bookings with people being nervous around flight cancellations, but it’s a bit variable.”

NZSki is one of New Zealand’s leading snow sports operators, owning and managing The Remarkables, Coronet Peak and Mt Hutt ski areas.

Anderson recently attended trade shows in Melbourne and Sydney, and saidplenty of customers were interested in coming to New Zealand for the snow season.

Despite the suggested hesitation in bookings, Air New Zealand and Queenstown Airport confirmed to Anderson that their loadings and flight capacity were up year-on-year.

He said he expects visitation to be up roughly 5% on last year, with an opportunity to do better if more travellers can book.

NZSki has been busy over the last few months on several initiatives, including a partnership with Sunac-BonSki in December.

Sunac-BonSki is China’s leading indoor snow sports operator, delivering year-round skiing experiences across 11 large-scale venues in major cities.

The deal opened direct access to China’s rapidly expanding snow sports market, giving NZSki access to Sunac-BonSki’s database of Chinese visitors.

“A lot of them will go and ski in these massive indoor resorts, and then their aspiration will be to get away from the heat of Beijing in summer and take a trip down to the Southern Hemisphere.

“This year we’ve employed 25 Mandarin-speaking instructors to cater to the Chinese market coming in, so we are gearing up.”

Anderson said it was one thing to enter a market to attract the demand, but operators also need to ensure their product on the ground is ready to go.

The business has also increased the number of noodle dishes in its food and beverage outlets, as another example of making the facilities more accessible for Chinese travellers.

NZSki has recently installed a $2 million-plus SnowFactor machine, allowing the ski field at Coronet Peak to produce between 200 and 250 cubic metres of snow a day.

The machine has been a priority for Anderson, who said the technology had guaranteed an early opening on May 29.

The early start to the season will coincide with a new two-day celebration to be held over King’s Birthday Weekend, reviving the former Queenstown Winter Festival, which ran annually from 1975-2023.

Anderson said the idea to revive the festival came during Destination Queenstown’s 40th anniversary celebrations.

“There were a lot of people talking about how cool the Queenstown Winter Festival used to be, and I said to my team, well, why don’t we bring this back? Why don’t we try to rekindle the vibe that it brought?”

NZSki has worked with Destination Queenstown, Lake Wānaka Tourism, Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce and Skyline Queenstown to bring the event together, with Anderson keen to get other companies on board for future years.

“What we’re hoping to do is just kick this off and, forgive the pun, but hopefully it’ll snowball in future years, and we’ll get other companies on board who love winter as much as we do.”

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.