Winter 09 a record season for Lake Wanaka

Latest figures from Statistics New Zealand show Lake Wanaka's winter season from 1 July to 30 September 2009 was the most successful on record with a substantial increase on 2008 in visitor numbers and guest nights. Visitor numbers were up 17.8% with Australian visitors contributing significantly to the increase and guest nights were up 14%.

General manager of Edgewater Resort, Leigh Stock said it was a fantastic result for the season. "We saw an increase across our winter with our FIT clients. A big percentage came out of the Australian market which was very welcome as there had been predictions of a gloomy winter. What this now means is that business have come out of the first half of the year in positive state which is reassuring."

Lake Wanaka Tourism general manager, James Helmore, said these figures were hugely positive for the town, especially given the prevailing economic conditions.

"There was a big question mark over how well, or not, the 2009 winter would go and we're thrilled to see such positive results," he said. "This will most definitely generate great word-of-mouth to encourage visitors to return next winter plus of course there's the opportunity they will choose to visit during the summer months as well. We will continue to ramp up our international and domestic marketing strategies with the aim of improving these figures still further for 2010."

The region's four ski areas are the drawcards for Lake Wanaka during the winter and 2009 was a record breaker at Cardrona Alpine Resort which marketing manager, Nadia Ellis, put down to a combination of excellent snow conditions, good Australian marketing and high profile events.

"By August Cardrona had recorded the deepest accumulated snowfall in the last decade and a combination of Tourism New Zealand's Australian marketing campaign and Kiwis unable to resist the lure of great snow saw numbers sky rocket," she said. "Also the Burton Open, Winter Games NZ and the Snowboard World Cup brought a large number of elite international athletes and widespread media attention."

For further information on Lake Wanaka, visit www.lakewanaka.co.nz