Industry insights

Tourism sector's contribution to New Zealand

Before COVID-19, tourism was New Zealand's largest export industry and delivered $40.9 billion to the country. Tourism made a significant positive impact on regional economies supporting employment by directly employing 8.4 percent (229,566 people) of the New Zealand workforce.

For the year ended March 2022:

• Total tourism expenditure was 26.5 million, an increase of 2.7 percent ($704 million) from the previous year ($41.9 billion in year ended March 2020).
• International tourism expenditure increased 30.6 percent ($455 million) to $1.9 billion ($17.5 billion year ended March 2020) and contributed 2.4% to New Zealand’s total exports of goods and services (20.1 percent year ended March 2020).
• GST generated from international tourists totalled $209 million, an increase of $72 million.
• Overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand increased 335.3 percent to 229,370.
• Domestic tourism expenditure increased 1.0 percent ($249 million) to $24.6 billion ($24.4 billion year ended March 2020).
• Tourism generated a direct contribution to GDP of $10.0 billion ($16.4 billion year ended March 2020), or 3.0 percent of GDP (5.5 percent year ended March 2020), an increase of 1.3 percent ($132 million).
• The indirect value added of industries supporting tourism generated an additional $6.6 billion ($11.2 billion year ended March 2020), or 2.0 percent of GDP (4.0 percent year ended March 2020).
• 145,032 people were directly employed in tourism (225,384 people year ended March 2020). 5.2 percent of the total number of people employed in New Zealand