WELLINGTON, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- A surge in international visitors has helped drive a record boom in New Zealand's commercial accommodation sector in September, the government statistics agency said Thursday.
National guest nights for September were up 6.4 percent year on year, according to Statistics New Zealand.
"Over two-thirds of the rise in guest nights was from foreign visitors," business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly said in a statement.
"Most guest-night series are at record highs for a September month."
International guest nights were up 12.4 percent year on year, and domestic guest nights were up 3 percent.
For the year ended September, national guest nights were up 6.2 percent year on year.
International visitor arrivals were up 13 percent year on year to 245,900 in September, according to Statistics New Zealand figures out last month.
A surge in arrivals from China and Australia in the year ending September helped drive an 11-percent rise to a record 3.39 million visitors.
Prime Minister and Tourism Minister John Key on Wednesday told a summit of tourism industry representatives that a tourist tax could be introduced to help fund infrastructure maintenance and development so it could cope with the numbers.
