Returning international tourists drive 1.3bn windfall
But visitor numbers still a long way down from pre-COVID levels
Newly-released International Visitor Survey figures for the period July-September 2022 show international visitor spend totalled $1.03 billion with Australian travellers contributing $626 million.
September alone saw more than 151,000 overseas visitor arrivals in September alone which is a real boost for our tourism sector.
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The survey also revealed Tourism Electronic Card Transactions spend in eight of New Zealand’s 16 regions was higher than October 2019 levels.
Minister for Tourism, Stuart Nash said he had been confident once New Zealand’s borders reopened, international tourists would return and boost the country’s economy.
“This survey shows that the world is still drawn to our fantastic country and international tourists are happy to pay for what New Zealand has to offer,” Mr Nash said.
In the regions, the greatest increase in international spend was recorded in Gisborne (up 47 percent), followed by Hawke’s Bay (up 45 percent).
International spend figures in Wellington, Waikato and Auckland were all at nearly 100 percent of pre-COVID October 2019 levels.
“Airline capacity also continues to increase and will average 70 percent of 2019 levels over summer,” Mr Nash said.
“This injection to the economy is likely to increase as NZ welcomes more international visitors this summer.”
Stats NZ figures show there were 151,300 overseas visitor arrivals in September 2022, up from 129,800 in August 2022.
However, the September 2022 total is still just 58 percent of the 261,800 overseas visitor arrivals recorded in September 2019 before the pandemic struck.
Of the 151,300 overseas visitor arrivals in September 2022, 70 percent were from Australia (compared with 51 percent in September 2019), 5 percent were from the United States (6 percent in September 2019); 4 percent were from United Kingdom (3 percent in September 2019), and 2 percent were from Singapore (2 percent in September 2019).
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