WELLINGTON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- International visitors led a surge in guest nights in New Zealand's accommodation sector in November last year, the government statistics agency said Thursday.
National guest nights for November 2016 were 5.1 percent higher than in November 2015, according to Statistics New Zealand.
"Again the rise in guest nights was led by international visitors," business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly said.
"While recently most accommodation series have been at record highs for their respective months, the growth in international visitor motel guest nights stands out."
Motels in particular benefited with international guest nights up 29 percent year on year to 378,000 in November.
It was the sixth month in a row that international motel guest nights have been up more than 20 percent year on year.
Total international guest nights were up 12 percent to 1.6 million, while domestic guest nights were down 0.9 percent to 1.7 million.
Visitor arrivals numbered 333,600 in November, setting a new November record and up 11 percent year on year.
In the year ending November visitor arrivals hit a record 3.45 million, up 12 percent year on year.
