Great Walk booking cancellations have roughly doubled this summer compared to the previous one.
Falls Hut, Routeburn Track. (File photo). Photo: Dept of Conservation
The Department of Conservation (DOC) received more than 7400 Great Walk booking cancellations between 1 December and 28 February.
Last summer, there were 3195 cancellations.
The results were similar across DOC huts and campsites with just over 7800 cancellations this summer and roughly 3800 cancellations for the summer before.
DOC booking services manager Ross Shearer said it did not record the reasons behind cancellations.
"People mainly cancel their own bookings online at any time and for any number of reasons. There are a number of obvious factors behind cancellations including Covid-19 impacts and also track closures," he said.
There was a partial closure of the Heaphy Track while the Milford and Routeburn tracks were closed following heavy flooding in early 2020.
"On the other hand we've also seen record numbers of New Zealanders making bookings over the last couple of years and we're still seeing high interest in booking DOC facilities currently," Shearer said.
"For example, between 2 and 22 December 2021, 6090 bookings were made and 1998 bookings were cancelled. It's therefore not easy to get any firm conclusions beyond Covid causes disruption as does the weather."
It was rational that people cancelled or changed plans due to Covid-19 concerns, whether that was uncertainty regarding the transmission risks, sickness or travel restrictions, Shearer said.
"This year there are several Covid-related factors at play: people may be holding out to go overseas as border restrictions ease, they may well be concerned about Omicron and there may be mixed impacts from DOC's vaccine policy for visitors."
The Great Walk booking cancellations for the 2019-2020 summer was also high with 5036 recorded.
When it came to international visitors, Shearer said DOC only had information on international bookings for bednights on Great Walks.
A bednight referred to one person staying one night in a bunk or a tent.
This summer, 4030 of the total 27308 bednights booked on Great Walks were international.
Of them, just under 15 percent of international bednight bookings were cancelled.
Last summer, there slightly more international bednight bookings - 4661 - with 22.9 percent of them cancelled.
But the heaviest hit was in the 2019-2020 season - there were 12047 international bednights booked on Great Walks out of a total of 26505, and 45 percent of them were cancelled.
"So the big wave of international cancellations was at the start of the pandemic and has been dwindling as a factor behind cancellation numbers since," Shearer said.
"The vast majority of international cancellations this year are from Australia, with about 10 percent from the USA and 1-2 percent each for the UK, Canada and Germany."
As for what difference has the government's 3 February border announcement has made on bookings - there have been 440 bednights booked on Great Walks from overseas since then.