Visitor Arrivals from Decline to Growth in October

Monday 21 October 2002

MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Visitor Arrivals from Decline to Growth in October

The number of international visitors to New Zealand has increased by over 14% in the month of October compared with the same time last year.

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton says the increase is not surprising as it is a year since the first impacts of September 11 were felt in the tourism industry.

“This time last year our visitor arrivals declined by 3% as visitors postponed their travel in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.”

Statistics New Zealand figures released today show the total number of international visitors to New Zealand for the month of October 2002 increased to 162,327. Visitor numbers for the year ended October 2002 increased by 2.8% from the same time last year to 1,985,000.

“Despite continued nervousness over terrorism attacks New Zealand’s two most risk averse markets showed substantial increases in visitors,” Mr Hickton said.

“Almost 16,000 American visitors came to New Zealand in October 2002, an increase of 13% and there was a huge 86% increase in Japanese visitors to 15,210 for the same month.”

In the month of the tragic Bali bombings there was a small increase in the number of visitors from Australia with just under 50,000 visitors travelling across the Tasman to New Zealand an increase of 4.4% on the same month last year.

New Zealand’s fifth largest visitor market, Korea has broken the 100,000 visitor mark with an increase of 23.4% of arrivals from that country in the last year ended October.

Mr Hickton said Tourism New Zealand was also pleased to see good growth out of South Asia which had turned around from declining figures earlier this year.

Malaysia increased by 25.6% to 1,836, Thailand increased by 20.7 percent to 3,366 and Singapore increased by 8.2% to 2,520.

“Additional air capacity and recovering economies have contributed to the growth in these visitor markets,” Mr Hickton said.

New Zealand’s high profile in the United Kingdom continues to reap rewards with our second largest market increasing 15.2% to 16,488 for the month of October 2002.

International visitor arrivals to New Zealand for the month of October 2002:

Australia up 4.4% to 48,888 visitors
United Kingdom up 15.2% to 16,488 visitors
USA up 13.1% to 15,876 visitors
Japan up 86% to 15,210 visitors
Korea up 60% to 9,576 visitors
China up 34.5% to 6,012 visitors
Germany down 7.2% to 4,716 visitors
Hong Kong down 15% to 1,818 visitors
Taiwan down 17.6 percent to 2,268

ENDS

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