Wellington accommodations were very busy in February, with an occupancy rate of 71.4 per cent, Dominion Post reports.

In contrast, Auckland hotels and motels were 71 per cent full, just a little behind Wellington in occupancy. The two cities had the most number of visitors in February.

Local and foreign visitors came to New Zealand for the sold out Rugby Sevens tournament and the International Festival of the Arts, both happened in February.

The NZ statistics shows Wellington's tourists reached 271,000 in February, which is a 2 per cent increase from the same month in 2011.

The February monthly total was way better than the Rugby World Cup period last year, Dominion Post notes.

Meanwhile, as the South Island continued to deal with the effects of the Canterbury earthquakes, total North Island guest nights went up 2.8 per cent to 1.9 million in February, compared to figures for February 2011.

The number of nights spent by both New Zealand and foreign visitors in hotels, motels and backpackers' accommodations was at 3.2 million in February, a 2 per cent drop on the same period last year.

''International guest nights fell in all but one of the 12 regions, with the largest falls occurring in Canterbury and Otago,'' acting industry and labour statistics manager Clara Eatherley told Dominion Post.

''Although domestic guest nights rose in most regions, particularly in the upper North Island, the rises weren't enough to offset the fall in international guest nights.''