As per the latest statistics released, over one million tourists visited New Zealand during the past twelve months.

If adhered to Tourism Minister John Key then the results prove the wisdom of boosting marketing in Australian region by $2.5 million. It is for the maiden time that over a million tourists came to New Zealand from across the world in a 12 month period.

A "thanks a million" campaign is being launched in order to celebrate. Two lucky people would also win a millionaire's holiday to New Zealand.

It has been confirmed by Statistics New Zealand that visitor arrivals in New Zealand for April 2009 were up by 9% from April last year, increasing by 16,500 to 195,900 for the month.

However, an increase does not mean that the tourism industry can take a sigh of relief, since SNZ warns that the increase came to scene due to the shift in timing of Easter, from March last year to April this year.

Furthermore, the tourist numbers are still down 2% from the same period last year, when the months of March and April are combined.

During the month of April, activity of services sector deteriorated for the thirteenth month in a row. This latest piece of news has been confirmed by the BNZ Capital-Business NZ Performance of Service Index (PSI).

For the month of April, the PSI was 43.7, which came as the second lowest overall result recorded and 3.4 points below March's level indicating service sector activity continues to shrink.

An expansion in index score of above 50 indicates sector activity was also being seen under pressure.

Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee said that a sum of $500 million a year could be saved via programme targeted at improving the energy efficiency of tourism businesses.

The basic aim of the program is to enhance competitiveness and environmental credentials of New Zealand tourism businesses.

Mr. Brownlee said that if in case the 16,000 tourism businesses nationwide made similar savings to those in the pilot programme, then almost $500m dollars a year that could be invested elsewhere.

Statistics for accommodation have witnessed a drop by 11% for the month of March, mostly affected by the late arrival of Easter this year.

For accommodation providers the depressed headline numbers from Statistics New Zealand are more bad news, but are unsurprising.

The statistics were low universally across the country and led by a 24 % decrease in paid guest nights in camping grounds for each accommodation type, typically strong performers during the Easter break.

It was today expressed by Tourism Holdings that 64 roles would be cut at its Hamilton based business CI Munro.

CI Munro is a division of Tourism Holdings Ltd and it builds and rents out motor homes and caravans. It reported loss of $3.2 million in the six months to December 31st. 

Tourism Holdings chief executive Grant Webster said that the decision was based on the present global economic conditions and lack of demand for the company's products.