September 2023 Queenstown Data Monthly Snapshot

Destination Queenstown's Monthly Data Snapshot aims to provide members with access to topline information about the prior month's performance. These insights have been gathered from the Member Data & Insights hub. The hub provides members with one convenient location for publicly available tourism data, purchased data, DQ-commissioned research, and the Forward Outlook. 

September 2023
In September 2023, Queenstown received just over 500,000 cumulative visitor days, a 26% increase from the same month in 2022. This was likely due to events such as Winter Pride, Snow Machine, and the spring school holidays. Visitor expenditure fell 11% compared to September 2022 to $75 million, with a 24% decrease in domestic spending. This was partially offset by a 5% increase in international expenditure. Encouragingly Queenstown's Visitor Experience Survey results show improvements in both Net Promoter Score (to 67) and overall visitor experience satisfaction (8.6 out of 10) over the last 12 months.

VISITOR EXPERIENCE

The Visitor Experience Survey is a survey of visitors to the Queenstown Lakes region. The results are shared quarterly and outline a variety of experience aspects including; visitor motivations, connection with people and place, activities/attractions, net promoter score and overall visitor experience satisfaction. The Visitor Experience Survey is Destination Queenstown and Lake Wānaka Tourism's collaborative research initiative facilitated by tourism research experts Angus & Associates. 

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Overall Visitor Experience Satisfaction Score 

[Source: Queenstown Visitor Experience Survey, Destination Queenstown facilitated by Angus & Associates.]
Sample size = 860. Last 12 months refers to 1 October 2022 - 30 September 2023, last 3 months refers to 1 July - 30 September 2023.

VISITATION

The cumulative monthly visitor count is a monthly total of unique daily visitors (e.g. a visitor that stays three nights is counted three times). Note this source is experiencing minor irregularities in daily counts which impacted January - September 2023 resulting in a slight under representation of international visitor days.  

September 2023 snapshot

Total cumulative visitor days

[Source: Dataventures Tourism New Zealand Tool. 1 January 2020 - 30 September 2023]
% change v last year (LY): percentage change vs same month 2022.
December 2021 and January 2023 are under-represented due to missing data points.

QUEENSTOWN AIRPORT PASSENGER ARRIVALS
The number of passengers that arrived through Queenstown Airport. 

September 2023 snapshot

Total passenger arrivals

Source: Queenstown Airport Passenger History 1 January 2019 - 30 September 2023
% change v last year (LY) - percentage change vs same month 2022
% change v 2019 - percentage change vs same month 2019

VISITOR EXPENDITURE

Visitor expenditure refers to money spent on tourism-related activities while in Queenstown. DQ uses Marketview visitor spend figures as our expenditure measure. Marketview visitor expenditure is based on visitor in-person card transactions and does not include estimates for cash, online transactions and pre-bookings.

Note: this source is not adjusted to account for inflation.

September 2023 snapshot

Total visitor expenditure

[Source: Worldline/Marketview Tourism Data Tool. 1 January 2019 – 30 September 2023]

Visitor expenditure by region/country of origin September 2023

[Source: Worldline/Marketview Tourism Data Tool. 1 - 30 September 2023]

Visitor expenditure by local sub-region September 2023

[Source: Worldline/Marketview Tourism Data Tool. 1 - 30 September 2023]
% change v last year (LY) - percentage change vs same month 2022.
% change v 2019 - percentage change vs same month 2019.

The Queenstown Data Monthly Snapshots are gathered from the

Member Data & Insights hub.