Australia

Market Overview


Australia is New Zealand's largest inbound tourism market, accounting for around half of all visitors. There were 1,155,648 Australian total visitor arrivals to New Zealand to the year ended October 2012, up 1.4 per cent from the previous year (source: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment - MBIE).

The Australian market provides nearly 450,000 holiday visitors per year for a total of 4.9 million holiday stay days. Total tourism expenditure accounts for $1.6 billion NZD. Fuelled by a strong economy and an appetite for international travel, Australia will continue to be essential to New Zealand's tourism industry.

Key Statistics

International Visitor Arrivals April 2013

Year End Total 1,171,504 0.9%
Year End (Holiday) 444,544 2.6%
Month End Total 92,928 0.8%
Month End (Holiday) 34,608 6.3%
Total Stay Days* 12,343,440
Total Stay Days (Holiday)* 4,897,744
Average Length of Stay* 10.5 days
Average Length of Stay (Holiday)* 11.0 days

International Visitor Survey - YE March 2013

Average Expenditure per Visit NZD1,495
Total Expenditure per Annum NZD1.601b

Market Trends

Official New Zealand Government forecasts are for Australian visitor arrivals to reach 1.64 million in 2018 (source: NZIER Tourism forecasts  2012-18). One of the quoted drivers from NZIER is...

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Want to know more?

Published monthly, the International Visitor Arrivals (IVA) survey measures international visitor arrivals into New Zealand by month and by year. For more information on IVA visit Statistics New Zealand.

Published quarterly, the International Visitor Survey (IVS) is carried out by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). Research is based on around 5,200 interviews conducted with international visitors as they depart from Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch airports. For more information on the IVS visit MBIE's website.

Click here for more information on Australian holiday arrivals in 2011 including seasonality, state of origin, where they are arriving in New Zealand, which regions they are visiting and the types of activities and attractions they are doing while in New Zealand.

For more information including tourism research and data, policy, and publications please see the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

IMP highlights

Check out some of the media files that TNZ is supporting.

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