The hospitality sector says a good summer will set it up for the year ahead, even in the face of recession.

Economists said this week that the country was in a deeper than expected recession - the worst six-month period since 1991, excluding Covid-19.

Treasury's Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update also painted a bleak picture, forecasting the country was likely to stay in the red until 2029.

Hospitality NZ's Sam McKinnon said customer sentiment strongly affected the sector, and consumers had been buoyed by recent official cash rate (OCR) cuts.

"Customer sentiment is a key driver in terms of spend in the economy and discretionary spend, especially in tourism and hospitality.

"We've seen some of the positivity return with announcements around the OCR cuts and that sort of thing. It remains to be seen what the impact of a negative update from Treasury will be, but the weather is a good influence for customer sentiment as well.

"We're certainly hopeful that over the summer months, people will feel positive about spending out on hospitality and making the most of the warm weather."

Earlier this month, MetService said it was anticipating a hot summer when it issued its first heat alerts for the season. McKinnon said that would set hoteliers, restaurants, cafes and bars up for the year.

"Even in the main centres, as people return to work, if you've got a good couple of months of summer weather and they're in the office, they might be able to leave a little bit early or go for an after work drink or meet up with friends for dinner.

"So good weather anywhere in the country tends to be positive for hospitality. We're hoping that we will have a really strong summer and they will set us up for success in 2025."

This story was originally posted by RNZ