Queenstown's mayor says a late winter is behind snowballing tourist numbers

Statistics New Zealand says the number of overseas visitors arriving at Queenstown Airport increased by 22 percent in August - compared with the same time last year.

It's is the largest monthly gain on record for the town.

Freshly re-elected mayor Jim Boult says the snow came late this year.

He says a lot of people were holding off making the trip, until there'd been a decent dump of snow.