#NewZealandVacationsFriendsTravel #Queenstown: It’s Not Just Bungee Jumping Anymore. Ever since A.J. Hackett and Henry Van Asch basically introduced bungy (bungee) jumping to the world in 1988 from Queenstown’s Kawarau Bridge, the town has been known for a high-adrenaline brand of tourism. But it’s not all white-knuckle activities in the New Zealand’s outdoor adventure capital. Yes there is heli-hiking in the Remarkable Mountains, jet boating down the Dart River and they’re still jumping from Kawarau, but there’s much more to the area, and Destination Queenstown has improved its messaging in recent years so that the other dimensions of travel there have increased their prominence. The result is more visitors coming throughout the year. Last June, the city set a record for hotel nights over a 12 month period. In the year that ended in June, Queenstown guest nights were up 9.8 percent over the previous year to 2,908,025. International visitors accounted for 109,172 of those nights, up 3 percent. There are many ingredients that go into that success, not the least of which is the city’s more multi-dimensional profile. Part of the broader appeal stems from Destination Queenstown highlights the diversity of experiences and the region’s four distinct seasons. Golf and ski have become major attractions. In the July heart of the ski season, New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister Bill English cut the ribbon on the new Curvey Basin lift at Queenstown’s Remarkables ski area. In its first 21 days of operation it carried 22,000 individual skiers. The high-speed six-seater chairlift carries 2,800 people per hour and takes just seven minutes to travel the mile-long line. The chairlift was part of an overall $45 million investment at the ski area which also included road improvements, trail developments, expansion of the snow making system, and more. A new base building will also be delivered as part of the investment. Increasingly famous as the home of golf’s New Zealand Open, the Millbrook Resort just purchased 66 adjacent hectares of land in order to expand capacity and to upgrade its current 27-hole layout to a full two-course layout. The extra acreage will give Millbrook a two-course resort complex and double the resort’s golf capacity. By expanding to 36 holes, Queenstown officials believe they can extend the important high yielding golf market’s length of stay when golfers extend to play the second course. Millbrook will once again co-host the New Zealand Open along with The Hills in Arrowtown from March 12 to 15, 2015. Destination Queenstown and the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce got the go-ahead for the development of a $55 million Convention Center. The municipal council believes the center can add more than $30 million annually to the local economy. Convention centers have the uncanny ability to bring the highest yielding visitors, delegates, who spend as much as six times more per person than ordinary tourists do. Convention centers are also effective in filling those soft parts of the calendar year when few tourists come. The Convention Center is scheduled to open in the second half of 2016. In its first phase it will be able to handle meetings and events for up to 900 conference delegates. The building will look out on the Remarkables mountain range, Coronet Peak and Ben Lomond. The center will also bring with it two new hotels, new stores, cafés and bars. #FriendsTravelWestHollywoodCa Since 1985 #JessKalinowsky JESS@FriendsTravel 24|7|365 #AustraliaVacationsFriendsTravel #SouthPacificVacationsFriendsTravel
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 05:31:20 +0000
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