Ninety percent of Queenstown hostels and backpackers are at capacity ahead of summer.
It comes as a third of hostels have shut down post pandemic, and many tourism operators are expecting a surge in visitors over the next few months.
Backpacker Youth Adventure Tourism Association Chairman Haydn Marriner told Kate Hawkesby that he's putting it down to a lack of available housing in Queenstown.
He says the massive oversupply of Airbnbs is causing huge problems for the region's rental market.
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