Motel, hotel, backpacker and holiday park beds are filling up as the region’s accommodation sector takes strides in earthquake recovery.

In March, the region saw a boost of more than 21 per cent in its guest night rate, according to the latest Statistics New Zealand report.

“Canterbury recorded the largest increase in guest nights up 71,000,” it said. The second highest region was Rotorua with an increase of 14.29 per cent.

The report said guest nights were boosted by an early Easter weekend.

In particular, Christchurch city filled 328,334 of the 407,574 beds.

ChristchurchNZ manager of destination management Caroline Blanchfield said it is “great news” for the accommodation sector.

Ms Blanchfield said a major factor in has been the airport’s move to increase international air capacity in the city.

“An increase of direct flights to Christchurch means that we are now more connected with the rest of the world,” she said.

But Randolph motel owner Peter Mason said there was still a long road to recovery.

“Having direct flights from Air China to Christchurch airport since December helped,” Mr Mason said.

However, he said a lot of tourists spend one night in the city and then move on to other South Island towns.

“We’re just not getting the facilities to get the tourists in and it really is frustrating,” he said.

Mr Mason said while the development in the Convention Centre was good news, the lack of action on a stadium and in Cathedral Square was holding tourist numbers back.

“If I’d known what I know now, how slow the rebuild would be, I would have left,” he said.

Ms Blanchfield said having more major and business events also boosted the visitor numbers.

“This has resulted in the increased length of stay outside of peak tourism periods. The Golden Oldies was a great event that helped boost visitor numbers and accommodation statistics.”

Though the accommodation sector is “healthy” Ms Blanchfield said number of rooms in the city has still not quite returned to pre-quake levels.

“During the past year the Distinction Hotel, with 179 rooms in Cathedral Square, and Crowne Plaza with 204 rooms in Colombo St have opened. The number of rooms in all accommodation is over 6000, which equates to 78 per cent of pre-earthquake capacity,” she said.

Ms Blanchfield said there are several conferences planned from next January as the Convention Centre opens, which would also bring the numbers up.

What the tourists are saying:

Wei Kit Ng and Sherly Lee didn’t stay in city for more than a few hours after their plane landed.

Mr Ng said they weren’t really interested in Christchurch following the earthquakes and didn’t know much about the city.

Instead they just used the airport to travel to and from home in Malaysia.

“We were only in transit, we didn’t want to stay in Christchurch the night and immediately left and went to Mt Cook,” he said.

They had half a day to kill before their bus left so they visited the Botanic Gardens.

“But it’s winter, so the garden wasn’t very nice.”

Mr Ng said instead of staying in the city, they wanted to go sightseeing in the rest of the South Island. The pair spent most of their two-week holiday in Queenstown and Wanaka.

“It was very, very nice,” he said.

Mr Ng said maybe next time they would spend more time in Christchurch, but not in winter.

Frantisek Hezina spent two weeks in a hostel in the central city.

The Czech Republic national said he had been travelling around New Zealand for almost a year and Christchurch was his last stop.

But Mr Hezina said it was “not really exciting.”

“I went to the central city four or five times, but it just looks like an American city to me,” he said.

Mr Hezina said he had travelled to Alexandra, Queenstown and Timaru, which he enjoyed more.

Helen Findlay has been visiting Christchurch for the last 50 years from her home in rural Victoria.

The Australian said she spent four days in Canterbury, and most of that time was spent on Banks Peninsula and North Canterbury.

“We went up to Cheviot and Gore Bay as well as over to Lyttelton in the fog,” she said.

Mrs Findlay said she was impressed with the way things are moving in the central city.

Matthew Carden

Matthew Carden said he used Christchurch as a “stopping point” on his two-week bus trip around the South Island.

He was heading back to the Gold Coast but had spent three days at either end of his holiday in the city.

“I did want to see the city and I didn’t know what to expect. Quite frankly I was stunned, it really reminded me of Hiroshima.”

But Mr Carden said he wished he’d allowed more time in Christchurch.

“It really should promote itself more to get people to come, stay for a while and see the rebuild,” he said.

Though he did say he wished something would be done with the Christ Church Cathedral.

-Star.kiwi