Tourism still booming

Argentinian visitor number increased by more than 200 per cent over the last year. Photo: Fairfax NZ

The All Blacks/Pumas rugby match in October may be the reason behind a sudden surge in Argentine visitor numbers during the year.

Visitors from Argentina for the year ending September sowed a 215 per cent increase over the 2015 year with 896 visitors.

There were also big percentage increases in Malaysian and Korean visitors. Malaysians by 88.9 per cent to 2432, and Koreans by 66.5 per cent to 2128.

Strong growth in overseas visitor numbers, together with a buoyant domestic tourism market, contributed to a record $3.8 billion increase in tourism spending in the past year, Statistics New Zealand reports today.

Spending by international tourists in New Zealand in the year ended March 2016 climbed to $14.5b – an increase of 19.6 per cent – according to the Tourism Satellite Account: 2016.

This follows a 17.1 per cent increase in the previous year. The number of short-term international visitors increased 10.4 per cent over the same period.

'Increasing visitor numbers from across key international markets, on the back of expanding airline and cruise capacity, drove the increase in spending by international tourists,” says national accounts senior manager Daniel Griffiths.

Domestic tourism spending also increased 7.4 per cent ($1.4b) to $20.2b.

'The increase in domestic spending was particularly strong in the retail, passenger transport, and hospitality sectors,” says Daniel.

Total tourism expenditure increased 12.2 per cent to $34.7b, following a 10.3 per cent increase in the previous year.

Other key provisional estimates for the year ended March 2016:

  • International tourism expenditure contributed 20.7 per cent to New Zealand's total exports of goods and services.
  • Tourism generated a direct contribution to GDP of $12.9b – 5.6 per cent of GDP.
  • The indirect value added of industries supporting tourism generated an additional $9.8b for tourism – 4.3 per cent of GDP.
  • 188,136 people were directly employed in tourism – 7.5 per cent of the total number of people employed in New Zealand.
  • Tourists generated $2.8b in GST revenue.

While international visitor arrivals for September 2016 were 245,089 – up 28,105 on September 2015.

May through to September are the low months before international visitor numbers begin picking up for the summer months.

Total international visitors for the year ending September were 3,386,685. In 2010 international visitors numbered about 2.5 million, reaching three million in 2015.

Most foreign visitors were Australian, Chinese or America. (122,160, 27,184, 15,152) While American visitor numbers increase 32 per cent on 2015 by 3712.

You may also like....

0 comments

Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.