The Rugby World Cup 2011 is boosting hotel performance in Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand, according to data from STR Global, the leading provider of information to the global hotel industry.

The event began 9 September with matches running through 23 October 2011.

Auckland and Wellington, which are two of 11 cities hosting matches throughout the country, have seen increases in average daily rate on game days, albeit to varying levels of growth and duration, according to daily data from STR Global.

Wellington has experienced very strong ADR growth on the nights it has hosted matches, reaching almost 300 percent ADR growth during the quarter final on 8 October. The trend indicates that travellers arrived largely on the nights of matches for overnight stays but soon left the city to continue their journey around the islands. Meanwhile in Auckland, the pattern has been slightly different during the qualifying matches with ADR growth starting the night prior to games for two consecutive nights, which has allowed hoteliers to benefit longer.

Both locations experienced stronger occupancy levels throughout the event than the previous year. Following the quarter final in Wellington on 9 October between Australia and South Africa, hotel performance dropped rapidly with occupancy level declining 16 percent compared to the same day last year and ADR retracting to normal two days later at NZD158 (-0.6 percent).

“This coming weekend Auckland will be full of activities, and the fever is likely to make hoteliers very busy ahead of the World Cup Final”, said Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global. “We are very excited to monitor how hotels will benefit from this global event on both the short and long term”.