Australian holiday arrivals and a strong ski season have helped
New Zealand enter new territory for visitor arrivals over
winter.
Figures out from Statistics New Zealand today showed that
Australian holiday arrivals over the winter season of June, July
and August were up 28 per cent on the same three months last
year.
Australian holiday arrivals for those three months were also 2
per cent higher than arrivals over the peak 2007/2008 summer months
of December, January and February.
"The recession and a combined New Zealand marketing push in
Australia have resulted in this winter season outstripping summer
arrivals in 2007/2008 and that is something we could not have
foreseen given the current economic downturn," Tourism New Zealand
Chief Executive George Hickton said.
Overall visitor arrivals in August were down 1 per cent, or 1385
visitors, compared to the same month last year. However, holiday
arrivals were up 1 per cent on August 2008.
Though the UK is continuing to show weakness, with arrivals in
August down 12 per cent, Germany is showing some strength, with
arrivals up almost 8 per cent.
"Our feedback from the market is that Germany has held up well,
particularly the youth sector. German travellers have proved to be
more resilient to the whole crisis despite the credit crunch and
swine flu," George Hickton said.
Arrivals from the US were also up 7.4 per cent overall and
holiday arrivals were up 20 per cent.
Though arrivals from Asia are still in negative territory, they
are starting to pull back from recent lows caused by the impact of
Influenza A (H1N1) (Swine Flu).
"Tourism New Zealand has just launched a new round of campaign
work in China ahead of a special Golden Week national holiday
starting on 1 October, we hope that will kick start the Chinese
holiday market in the run up to summer," George Hickton said.
Read
more about our markets under 'Markets and Stats'
International Visitor Arrivals July 2009:
- Australia: 88,347 up 11.6%
- UK: 10,353 down 12.2%
- USA: 10,752 up 7.4%
- Japan: 5,586 down 38.7%
- Canada: 2,247 up 5.3%
- China: 4,578 down 29.0 %
- South Korea: 4,200 down 33.7%
- Japan: 5,586 down 38.7%
- Germany: 2,247 up 5.3%
For further information contact:
Cas Carter, Corporate Communications, Tourism New
Zealand
Mob 021 915 410