Winter holiday makers drive visitor growth

Winter holiday makers drive visitor growth

An increase in overseas visitors seeking a winter break resulted in an additional 10,000 holiday arrivals to New Zealand in August, as growth in the tourism industry marches steadily on.

Figures released today by Statistics New Zealand show total visitor arrivals for the year up 7.8 per cent and holiday arrivals up 11.1 per cent year-on-year.

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive Kevin Bowler says, “It is great to see this momentum continue after reaching last month’s milestone of three million visitors.

“To have sustained such strong growth through the winter months is great news for the industry and it is even better to see that growth in holiday arrivals is leading the charge.

“Our number one visitor market Australia has maintained steady growth at 1.29 million up 4.5 per cent.”

Australia has seen another month of great holiday arrivals, up 3.9 cent, pushing figures closer to half a million holiday arrivals for the year ended August.

“Our winter marketing activity encouraging Australians to take a winter break in New Zealand has been in full swing with the ‘More magic in every day’ campaign highlighting the variety of winter experiences on offer in New Zealand - both on and off the slopes.

“China continues to deliver strong growth, with holiday arrivals up 33.9 per cent. But a better story sits behind this figure with holiday stay days up 42.2 per cent for the year ended August, which is a great sign that we are attracting more high quality Chinese visitors,” says Kevin.

Growth has been further supported by strong holiday arrivals across Tourism New Zealand's other target Asian markets with Singapore up 11.2 per cent, Malaysia up 10.1 per cent and Korea up 21.4 per cent.

“Arrival figures for the markets of the US and Germany have again shown significant growth, with holiday arrivals for Germany up 9.1 per cent and the US arrivals up 13.8 per cent on the same period last year.

“These are both very important markets for us and to see these figures continue to rise in the winter months is fantastic news.”

Tourism New Zealand’s priority emerging markets are continuing to see strong growth with Indonesia (up 13.8 per cent), India (up 24.9 per cent) and Brazil (up 8.4 per cent) all in growth.

Tourism New Zealand’s activity in Latin America is ramping up ahead of the launch of the inaugural Air New Zealand flight to Buenos Aires which will open up exciting new opportunities from Latin America.

ENDS

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