It’s Tuesday, and the numbers that matter today are the ones about who is still trading. Five items. Here’s what’s moving.
Hospitality liquidations reach 432 in a year, and the sector now fails at the highest rate Centrix tracks
Centrix’s latest Credit Indicator puts hospitality company liquidations at 432 over the 12 months to August, up from 422 in the report a month earlier. That is 1.4 percent of all registered hospitality companies, the highest rate of the seven sectors the credit bureau breaks out: construction loses more firms by number (755) but only 0.9 percent of its companies, transport 0.8 percent, and retail and manufacturing 0.6 percent each. Hospitality made up 15 percent of all company insolvencies in August, second only to construction.
The wider picture is slightly better than the headline. Across the economy, 223 companies were liquidated in August against 248 a year earlier, and construction failures are now edging down. Hospitality is not following that turn. Business credit enquiries from the sector are also up 9 percent on a year ago, which can mean investment, but in a sector this stretched more often means operators borrowing to get through. With the OCR raised to 2.75 percent in September and fuel feeding inflation, the cafes and restaurants that visitors rely on in the regions go into summer with less room than last year.
Stat of the day
1.4%
The share of New Zealand's hospitality companies liquidated in the year to August, against 0.9 percent in construction and 0.6 percent in retail. (Centrix)
Source: Centrix September Credit Indicator (PDF), News Wire on the August report
The Commerce Commission goes to court over “10 best” lists that it says were paid for
The Commerce Commission has filed proceedings in the Auckland High Court against two websites, Top Reviews and Auckland Magazine, which publish ranked lists of New Zealand businesses in the “10 best” style. The Commission alleges the sites approach businesses for payment in return for favourable rankings while presenting the reviews as independent, written by local staff writers. Its investigation found the sites have no presence in New Zealand despite using New Zealand addresses, that some of the named writers were real people who did not know their identities were being used, and that some featured businesses did not know they were listed. A Stop Now letter in December did not stop the conduct.
The Commission wants declarations under the Fair Trading Act, an injunction, and the cooperation of the main internet providers and the Domain Name Commission in blocking the sites while the conduct continues. For hospitality and visitor businesses, which live on exactly this kind of list, the case puts a line under a sales pitch many will recognise. Deputy chair Anne Callinan said businesses “shouldn’t be misled into paying for favourable online rankings”. Operators who have paid can report it to the Commission and talk to their bank.
Source: Commerce Commission via Scoop, Commerce Commission case register
Ruapehu’s mayor asks every party for a commitment on the Chateau Tongariro before its centenary
Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton has called for a political commitment to restore the Chateau Tongariro, the Category 1 heritage hotel at Whakapapa Village that has been closed since February 2023 because of earthquake risk. The Department of Conservation ran a request for proposals from March and says the process found a credible investor-developer with the money to do the work, but no new lease holder has been announced. Kirton said reports that demolition remains an option will worry the 16,000 people who signed the Save the Chateau petition, and pointed to the building’s centenary in 2029.
The regional stakes are concrete. The Chateau used to provide about 30 percent of Ruapehu’s commercial visitor beds, and DOC’s own estimate puts the benefit of reopening at $56 million over 60 years in present-value terms. The complication is that documents released under the Official Information Act show iwi would prefer demolition, which Kirton argues need not rule out restoration alongside Treaty partnership. With the election a month away, he is asking for a promise that outlasts the campaign.
Source: RNZ, Waatea News, Ruapehu District Council via Scoop
The top of the South Island pools $645,000 to chase 5,500 more Australians this summer
Hurunui Tourism is leading a $644,902 campaign to bring an extra 5,500 Australian visitors to Hurunui, Kaikōura, Marlborough, Nelson, Tasman and the West Coast between now and April. It is one of six campaigns sharing the $5 million Regional Tourism Boost Fund announced by Tourism Minister Louise Upston last month, and general manager Sarah Wiblin said the grant is more than double Hurunui Tourism’s own annual budget. The pitch is food and wine, wellness and soft adventure, sold as a slower alternative to Christchurch and Queenstown.
The arithmetic on the target is worth doing. Using the Tourism New Zealand figures the campaign quotes, an Australian stays nine days and spends about $330 a day, so 5,500 extra visitors would spend roughly 5,500 x 9 x $330 = $16.3 million, about 25 times the campaign’s cost, if they all came because of it. That is a big if, and the result will be hard to measure across six regions. The more lasting change may be structural: small regional tourism organisations that cannot afford an Australian campaign alone are learning to buy one together.
Source: Local Democracy Reporting via Scoop
Lyttelton reports $33.4 million profit and readies for a cruise season of 63 calls
Lyttelton Port Company’s 2026 annual report records revenue of $226 million, EBITDA of $75.6 million and underlying net profit after tax of $33.4 million, with $15.4 billion of two-way trade through the port. The big project remains the $821 million Te Awaparahi Bay expansion, which is about container capacity and supply chain resilience rather than visitors.
The visitor side starts on 22 October, when the 2026-27 cruise season opens with 63 ship calls expected as at April. Last season 65 calls were scheduled and 60 arrived, one lost to an engine failure and four to weather, so roughly one call in thirteen did not happen. For Christchurch and Banks Peninsula businesses planning cruise-day staffing, that is the number to plan around: the schedule is a forecast, and the weather gets a vote.
Source: Lyttelton Port Company via Scoop, Lyttelton Port Company
Coming up
- 8 October: The old visitor visa application forms close and remaining drafts are deleted
- 14 October: CAA consultation on the security levy cut closes at noon, and Stats NZ releases international travel figures for August
- 22 October: Lyttelton’s 2026-27 cruise season opens, with 63 calls expected
- 28 October: Reserve Bank OCR decision, and Air New Zealand’s first Christchurch to Singapore service
- 1 November: Backcountry Hut Tickets move to DOC’s online booking system
- 4 November: Tourism Summit Aotearoa and the NZ Tourism Awards, Te Pae Christchurch
- 7 November: General election
- 19 November: Applications close for TRENZ 2027
- 11 to 13 May 2027: TRENZ 2027, Ōtautahi Christchurch
That's today's briefing. The Shoulder Season is back every weekday morning.