WELLINGTON, June 11 — New Zealand's tourism sector saw guest nights hit new highs in April with overseas visitors returning in greater numbers to earthquake-battered parts of the South Island, Xinhua news agency reports citing Statistics New Zealand.

Foreign guest nights were up by 3.9 per cent following a drop of 1.5 per cent in March, with South Island regions of Otago and Canterbury, which has been shaken by quakes since late 2010, leading the way.

Total guest nights, including domestic travellers, were up 3.2 per cent after falling by 1.5 per cent 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 per cent from April 2013 mainly due to the later timing of Easter and school holidays in some key source countries such as Australia and UK.

The city of Christchurch and 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. — Bernama