Nearly 60% of the businesses surveyed as part of the Bank of New Zealand - Business New Zealand Performance of Services Index reported positive activity.
The head of the Tourism Industry Association, Tim Cossar, says that while international visitor arrivals are down, anecdotal feedback indicates that Christmas-New Year was just as busy as previous years.
This is largely due to an increase in the number of domestic travellers.
Some sectors, such as holiday parks and backpacker accommodation, say bookings were even stronger than normal. .
However, Mr Cossar says forward bookings beyond March appear to be weak.
