Australian visitor arrivals continued to offset softening numbers from other long-haul markets during March and April.
Statistics New Zealand figures out Thursday showed that a late Easter led to a 9.2 per cent jump in international arrivals for April; almost 16,500 visitors.
When the two months of March and April are combined, to remove the effect of Easter, arrivals were down 1.8 per cent.
Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton said despite an overall slight decline, it was good to see Australian arrivals had increased over the combined two month period.
Total arrivals from Australia were up 7 per cent over the combined months of March and April compared with the same two months last year. Australian holiday arrivals were up 9.8 per cent.
"Competition in Australia is mounting for consumers’ travel dollars, both from domestic Australian and international promotional campaigns. Given the current economic climate, it is important for New Zealand to retain our profile in our largest visitor market and to build on the equity we have developed for our brand," says George Hickton.
Tourism New Zealand has been promoting heavily in Australia in recent months starting with an early bird ski campaign in February. This was followed by further work run in partnership with Air New Zealand to promote travel to New Zealand along with Air New Zealand’s 'It’s Our Shout' free domestic ticket offer.
A combined winter and ski holiday campaign is also currently running.
In March, New Zealand gained an additional $2.5 million of Government funding for Australian promotional work.
International Visitor Arrivals April 2009:
• Australia - 90,508, up 22.8%
• UK - 17,930, up 1.0%
• US - 14,388, up 1.4%
• Canada - 3,212, up 6.2%
• China - 10,670, down 6.0%
• Korea - 3,806, down 45.5%
• Japan - 6,072, down 15.7%
Source: Tourism New Zealand Media Release
*The International Visitor Arrivals (IVA) survey provides monthly statistics on Inbound travel by international visitors to
New Zealand
, including visitors by country, purpose, length of stay, age, sex, port of arrival and mode of transport (air/sea).
IVA statistics are obtained from the monthly External Migration survey undertaken by Statistics New Zealand, using international passenger arrival and departure cards collected by Customs at various international airports and seaports in
New Zealand
.
The same survey also provides Outbound travel statistics of
New Zealand
residents on short-term overseas trips for a period less than 12 months.
