Australia is New Zealand's largest inbound tourism market,
accounting for close to 45 per cent of all visitors and more than a
third of our holiday arrivals. Visitor arrivals have almost doubled
since 1999, increasing from 523,000 per year to more than 1 million
in 2010.
Three quarters of Australian visitors are on a repeat visit and
more than half will travel beyond the main tourism centres.
Visitor Key Facts (YE March 2010)
Source: Ministry of Tourism Research Website
| Median Length of Stay Holiday Visitors |
10 days
|
| Average Expenditure per Holiday Visitor |
NZD2,400 (+2.8%) |
| Total Annual Spend by Visitors |
NZD1.77b (+9.4%) |
| Regional Spread of Visitors |
55% travel outside of main regions |
| Key Regions Visited (by more than one in five
visitors) |
Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury Queenstown |
Market Growth and Seasonality
Visitor arrival numbers usually spike in December with at least
121,000 monthly arrivals, while May normally marks the lowest
month, with no more than 70,000 arrivals.
Total visitor arrivals from Australia have steadily increased from
2007 to 2009. There were 1,082,680 visitors from Australia in the
year ending December 2009, up 10.9 per cent from the previous year.
Holiday arrivals have seen particularly strong growth, up 19.8 per
cent to 457,958 arrivals in the 2009 calendar year.
The early Easter break helped increase Australian visitor arrivals
by 19.8 per cent in March 2010 to 105,534 - more visitors than any
previous March on record.
The market reached one million arrivals in a 12-month period for
the first time in May 2009. The current forecast is for arrivals to
increase on average 3.1 per cent a year between 2009 and 2015.
Holiday Visitor Arrivals 2009-2010
Source: Statistics New Zealand
| Month |
Month End Actual |
Month End Variance |
Year to Date Actual |
Year to date Variance |
| May 10 |
18,880 |
-16.8% |
472,701 |
+19.0% |
| Apr 10 |
35,736 |
-4.3% |
476,519 |
+22% |
| Mar 10 |
43,030 |
+27.3% |
478,117 |
+26.2% |
| Feb 10 |
37,900 |
+10.1% |
468,879 |
+22.0% |
| Jan 10 |
44,921 |
+19.8% |
465,387 |
+21.3% |
| Dec 09 |
57,726 |
+17.2% |
457,958
|
+19.8% |
| Nov 09 |
34,109 |
+24.2% |
449,480 |
+18.8% |
| Oct 09 |
36,455 |
+40.6% |
442,827 |
+2.5% |
| Sep 09 |
45,675 |
+24.9% |
432,292 |
+13.7% |
| Aug 09 |
43,575 |
+24.4% |
423,187 |
+10.5% |
| Jul 09 |
47,748 |
+37.1% |
414,636 |
+8.7% |
| Jun 09 |
26,946 |
+19.5% |
401,712 |
+4.9% |
Want to know more?
For more information on visitor arrivals and the behaviour of
visitors from Australia, including their activity and accommodation
preferences, spend and length of stay, please see the International Visitors Survey Pivot Tables on
the Ministry of Tourism's research website.
See also the Ministry of Tourism's key international visitor market reports,
which include visitor trends and characteristics for the period
1999-2008.
United States