Australia Hits New Record High

For Immediate Release
21 August 2009

Australia Hits New Record High

Visitors from Australia reached a record high in July, delivering nearly 16,000 more travellers from across the Tasman than the same month last year.

The Australian market has grown by an additional 55,000 visitors in the last 12 months.

Recognising the importance of Australia, Tourism New Zealand committed $9 million of its budget to running a year-round campaign in Australia this year.

This year, Tourism New Zealand began marketing the ski season in February and followed up with television advertising promoting winter holidays. The industry backed that campaign with competitive packages – the result an enormous 37% increase in holiday arrivals for July.

New Zealand’s profile will get another lift today as Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism John Key announces the latest tourism campaign to attract more of New Zealand’s largest market.

Yesterday Mr Key announced more streamlined processes for border processing of trans-Tasman passengers, making Australian travellers’ experience of arriving in New Zealand faster and easier.

“It is good to see the Australian market delivering another record result and anything which makes travelling between Australia and New Zealand easier and cheaper will be a welcome boost to tourism numbers for both countries,” George Hickton, Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive said.

Overall arrivals were up 0.3% in July compared with the same month last year.

The statistics also showed some easing of the effect of Influenza A (H1N1) (Swine Flu) on Asian markets. Though arrivals are still down, the impact of Swine Flu on arrivals from Japan, China and Korea appears to be less severe than was evident in the June figures.

“While it is still early days, our offshore markets are reporting that bookings from Asian markets are picking up from October onwards, particularly in Japan, and we hope that trend will continue as we head into summer,” Mr Hickton said.

Arrivals from Germany have picked up well, up 14 per cent on the same month last year. In June, Germany overtook Korea as New Zealand’s sixth largest market for visitor arrivals.

“The softening in demand from some northern hemisphere markets has also freed up seats for travellers from smaller markets like Singapore, which is clearly showing that some pent up demand is now able to be satisfied,” Mr Hickton said.

International Visitor Arrivals July 2009:

• Australia 93,173 up 20.4%
• UK 11,914 down 9.6%
• USA 13,478 down 5.0%
• Canada 2,599 down 11.2%
• China 4,140 down 39.3 %
• South Korea 5,152 down 37.0%
• Japan 3,726 down 57.5%

ENDS

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