Growth in international visitor arrivals has again been
maintained with 2.63 million arrivals seeing total arrivals
increase by 5.6 per cent for the year-ending July 2012.
Commenting on the results, Tourism New Zealand's Chief Executive
Kevin Bowler says the increase shows the industry's resilience
during what is traditionally a low season.
"While total arrivals for the month of July 2012 were down 1.4
per cent, there continues to be positive indicators from key
markets with arrivals from China up 24.9 per cent and Australia up
0.4 per cent."
Tourism New Zealand's strategy continues to be focused on
growing total visitor stay days. Over 50.6 million stay days were
generated by international arrivals, an increase of 1.2 per cent
against the same year prior.
"With over 12 million stay days, Australian visitors accounted
for 24 per cent of total stay days in the last year. As the largest
single proportion of total stay days, this reiterates the
importance of this market to the New Zealand tourism
industry."
"It is also encouraging to see Japanese visitor arrivals up for
the month signifying a recovery in that market."
For July 2012 Japanese arrivals totaled 6,048, fractionally down
against the 6,480 arrivals in July 2010, which was prior to the
significant decline in Japanese arrivals which followed
Christchurch and Japan's earthquakes early last year.
Traditional long-haul markets continue to be a challenge with
total arrivals from the US down 2.3 per cent, and the UK down 2.8
per cent for the year.
Research conducted by Tourism New Zealand in Germany shows
concern about the Eurozone economic crisis is impacting on
preference for a holiday in New Zealand.*
"The research shows that as a result of the current uncertainty,
many international travellers are looking for less expensive
holidays and options that are closer to home, weakening demand for
long-haul holidays to destination such as New Zealand.
ENDS
Issued by Leah Phelps, Senior Communications Advisor, Tourism
New Zealand
leahp@tnz.govt.nz; phone
+64 21 843 896
*Source: Tourism New Zealand Active Considerer Monitor, Germany,
July 2012