Queenstown is fronting New Zealand's sightseeing market with a huge 18% swell in hotel guest nights for the month of April.

Hotel owners said that a mushrooming Australian market, a revival in conference bookings and easily reachable skifields were prime motivators of the surge.

New Zealand-wide, guest nights increased 208,168 on April last year, a 13% rise, whilst International visitor nights were on a 20% high, and domestic visitor nights soared to 1.8%.

Otago, Southland, Auckland and Canterbury were the only areas, which added to the raise from April last year. Otago was soaring 30,000 guest nights, or 8%, whilst Southland was upbeat by 3000 guest nights, or 4%.

In Queenstown, hotel visitor nights, described as one guest staying over for one night, were surging 18%.

Mercure Resort Queenstown General Manager, Paul Clark said that demand for lodging in the 148-room hotel was strong and it looked promising for the winter period.

He said that a lot of Australians made early bookings for winter vacations, as well as recurring tourists astounded by the skifields.

He added that the business conference market was also recuperating.

Paul said, "We have a lot of return visitors. The Aussie market is fantastic".

Novotel Queenstown Lakeside General Manager, Jim Moore said that bookings for the 273-room hotel were growing.