Media Release
For Immediate Release

February 27, 2009

Economic Conditions Biting into Tourism Markets

World economic conditions are biting into the New Zealand tourism industry with a decrease in the number of long-haul tourists visiting in January this year.

Statistics New Zealand figures out today show that there were 3.7% less visitors in January this year than the same time last year – an overall decrease of just under 10,000 visitors. This follows a record month for December last year.

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton says the figures are unsurprising.

“The industry has been reporting for some time that there are fewer numbers of visitors booking from our key long haul markets such as the United Kingdom (-10.4%) and the US (-19.5%).”

“But I am delighted to see that our summer campaign in Australia has helped fill the country during the industry’s peak season, with almost 2,000 extra Australians this January and a 4.5% increase in holiday arrivals.”

Chinese New Year also helped buoy numbers with around 4,000 extra visitors from New Zealand’s fourth largest market choosing to holiday in New Zealand during a key festivity for them.

Mr Hickton says while less people are travelling, Tourism New Zealand has been working hard to keep New Zealand high profile for those people still wishing to holiday, by running campaigns in four key markets over summer.

“We’ve run a summer campaign in Australia for the first time in years, we’ve had a second wave of campaigns in the UK and China and we are launching a new campaign in the US through Discovery Channel.”

Mr Hickton said the industry is expecting a slow winter and Tourism New Zealand is now focusing on how to drive numbers for next peak season.

Tourism New Zealand says the small rise in Australian numbers could hold an expected overall decline of visitors to between 5 to 10% between January and March. Long-haul markets are likely to drop between 10 to 15 % in that period.

International Visitor Arrivals January 2009:
- Australia 82,684 up 2.2%
- UK 37,968 down 10.4%
- USA 20,916 down 19.5%
- China 14,252 up 31.8%
- Japan 7,532 down 25.6%

ENDS

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