Overseas visitors returning to New Zealand's quake region

New Zealand's tourism sector saw guest nights at commercial accommodation hit new highs in April, with overseas visitors returning in greater numbers to earthquake-battered parts of the South Island, the government statistics agency announce Wednesday.

International guest nights were up by 3.9 percent following a drop of 1.5 percent in March, with the South Island regions of Otago and Canterbury, which has been shaken by quakes since late 2010, leading the way, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Total New Zealand guest nights, including domestic travelers, were up 3.2 percent after falling by 1.5 percent in March.

"Most guest night trend series are rising and many are at new highs," business indicators manager Neil Kelly said in a statement.

The trend for international guest nights had risen for the latest six months.

Short-term overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand numbered 224,200 in April, up 12 percent from April 2013, mainly due to the later timing of Easter and school holidays in some key source countries, such as Australia and the United Kingdom.

The city of Christchurch and the surrounding Canterbury region were shaken by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on Sept. 4, 2010.

A 6.3-magnitude quake on Feb. 22, 2011, killed 185 people and the city has been shaken by thousands of tremors since.