{"id":1998,"date":"2010-01-07T00:44:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-07T00:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/?p=1998"},"modified":"2010-01-07T00:44:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-07T00:44:00","slug":"christchurch-favourite-south-island-destination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2010\/01\/christchurch-favourite-south-island-destination\/","title":{"rendered":"Christchurch favourite South Island destination"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christchurchnz.com\/media\/1025665\/charter.jpg\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"153\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christchurchnz.com\/media\/1025665\/charter.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><b><br \/>Top 20 list shows Canterbury&#8217;s pulling power<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Christchurch has outperformed Queenstown to emerge as Kiwi holiday-makers&#8217; favourite South Island destination.<\/p>\n<p>The Garden City has also catapulted ahead of the capital city, Wellington, to secure second spot in online accommodation provider Wotif.com&#8217;s list of New Zealand&#8217;s top 20 travel destinations.<\/p>\n<p>And it appears that many travelers are discovering that Canterbury&#8217;s delights extend beyond the borders of its main city, with two other Canterbury destinations &#8211; Aoraki Mt Cook and Hanmer Springs &#8211; also securing spaces in the Wotif&#8217;s South Island top 10 list and the New Zealand top 20 list.<\/p>\n<p>The list was compiled based on the number of hotel bookings made over the past 12 months. Auckland grabbed the top spot while Queenstown came in fourth.<\/p>\n<p>Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism chief executive Christine Prince says she is delighted the Canterbury region features so prominently in the top 20 list.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As an organization we have worked really hard to get the message out that Christchurch and Canterbury are fantastic places for Kiwis to holiday and it&#8217;s great to see people are taking the time to explore the heart of the south and discover its delights for themselves,&#8221; Ms Prince says.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Despite the economic downturn last year, our visitor numbers have continued to grow. There&#8217;s widespread awareness that the best South Island holiday experiences, from world-class vineyards to natural thermal pools and safe swimming beaches, start here in Christchurch. The i-SITE Visitor Centre in Cathedral Square has been exceptionally busy over the Christmas\/New Year period with a wide range of visitors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With a full fun SummerTimes programme and the World Buskers Festival happening 21-31 January, the city is going to be the place to be&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We encourage visitors to take the time to explore not just Christchurch but all the other extraordinary destinations and activities on our doorstep,&#8221; Ms Prince says.<\/p>\n<p>Wotif.com general manager brand Megan Magill says the South Island continues to be a popular tourist destination thanks to its adventure sports, majestic landscapes and famous wine regions.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about Christchurch and Canterbury go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christchurchnz.com\/\">www.christchurchnz.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top 20 list shows Canterbury&#8217;s pulling power Christchurch has outperformed Queenstown to emerge as Kiwi holiday-makers&#8217; favourite South Island destination. The Garden City has also catapulted ahead of the capital city, Wellington, to secure second spot in online accommodation provider Wotif.com&#8217;s list of New Zealand&#8217;s top 20 travel destinations. And it appears that many travelers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}