Many local businesses are reporting a bumper New Year’s period, but are predicting there may be an early shoulder season.

The Wanaka App has heard mixed reports from businesses, including record-breaking days for some hospitality and retail businesses.

“Many businesses are reporting a slightly slower Christmas period than usual, but a bumper New Year’s with some reporting a 20 to 30 per cent average increase year on year across the ten to 12 days,” Ignite Wanaka executive officer Naomi Lindsay said.

“A mix of holiday homes being full and Kiwis taking to the roads to explore their backyard in campsites, hotels and B&Bs has meant good visitor numbers coming for a week to 10 days,” she said.

Lakeview Holiday Park manager Natalie Ward said the period between Christmas and New Year was very busy. 

Wanaka Lakeview Holiday Park between Christmas and New Year.

“I almost think it was fuller because every site was full of Kiwi families rather than couples and individual travellers.”

However the sites have emptied out since January 3-4, she said. “It’s trickling off - it almost reminds me of Wanaka ten years ago. It’s a nice level of busy.”

“The trend is showing the weekends will be busy, and I have a good feeling for the school holidays but the weekdays may be a lot quieter.”

Natalie said she thinks a lot of people are waiting for the summer holidays to be done before travelling with their families for the remainder of the school holidays.

New Kai Whakapai owner Nick Aubrey noted record numbers from Christmas through the following week, including large groups of young people from the Rhythm & Alps event. 

Now the crowds are predominately families, he said.

Hospitality businesses experienced a short ‘summer boom’. 

“It’s quite noticeable that things are slowing down faster than they have previously. It was a big boom, but it was short.”

But Nick said there are “still plenty of people around” and the challenge is to be smart about getting through what is likely to be a shoulder season which comes earlier than usual.

Puzzling World manager Duncan Spear said the attraction has had “pleasing numbers” through the holiday period.

“They’ve been holding pretty steady. We were probably down on numbers from Boxing Day to New Year’s, but [since] then have been up on last year.”

Receiving a similar number of visitors to previous years means “the slack has been picked up by the domestic audience”, he said.

It has also been “eye-opening” to realise how multicultural New Zealand really is, Duncan said, as the popular attraction has hosted many families from a range of Asian countries this summer.

“Before we perhaps considered they were from their home countries, but now they can only be from the domestic audience.”

Looking ahead, without the international tourists for Chinese New Year (late January/early February) which are a “big player” in Wanaka, Duncan said he is expecting visitor numbers to drop after the official holiday period ends.

Naomi agreed that future business “isn’t looking great” once the school holidays end. 

“With borders remaining closed and Kiwis largely returning to work, there is limited visitor business coming our way in February and March,” she said.

“Lake Wanaka Tourism and Tourism New Zealand continue to encourage New Zealanders to get out and do something new and we can only hope that Wanaka remains a must-visit destination.”

There is, however, an impressive lineup of events during the next few months which will attract domestic visitors to Wanaka. These include The Ruby Swim event (January 30), Challenge Wanaka (February 18-120), the Motatapu mountain biking event (March 2), The Wanaka A&P Show (March 12-13), Ripe: Wine & Food Festival (March 21), Wheels At Wanaka, Easter Weekend 2021 (April 2-4), the Festival of Colour (April 12-18), and the Contact Epic bike event (April 17).

Waitangi Weekend also means a public holiday on Monday February 8 - making another long weekend for visitors.

PHOTOS: Wanaka App