New Zealand needs more top-class hotels
Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe has said to the industry that New Zealand needs more top-class hotels to attract big spending and discerning customers.
Mr Fyfe said there was a “woeful shortage” of such places and asked why top American accommodation brands such as Raddison and Four Seasons were not in New Zealand.
He said that luxury hotels would attract “high-value, high-spending and discerning customers who demand nothing less than world-class accommodation, adding that such people were beneficial for everyone in the tourism industry.
Chief Executive of the New Zealand Hospitality Association, Bruce Robertson, said though there was not the demand for five-star accommodation.
He said that there were plenty of backpackers, and most visitors chose mid-level accommodation, adding that he was not sure that the market was saying Mr Fyfe is right.
Jonathan Knox, marketing development manager at Qualmark, which gives NZ accommodation its star rating, said discerning guests had world-class accommodation to choose from in New Zealand, saying that the country couldn’t compete with bigger countries in terms of five-star quantity, but it could do so when it came to quality, with Qualmark saying that New Zealand has 188 five-star accommodation establishments.
Report by The Mole
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