New Zealand Visitors Spend Record $64 Million

Tuesday 21 March 2000

TOURISM NEW ZEALAND
MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Zealand Visitors Spend Record $64 Million

A hike in visitor numbers to New Zealand has poured in an additional $64 million into the New Zealand economy.

A total of 192,000 international visitors came to New Zealand in February, spending on average $2,700 each – a total of more than $518 million.

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton says the 14 percent increase in visitor arrivals has shown that the tourism industry is continuing to prove itself as one of New Zealand’s largest foreign exchange earners.

“It is not just about visitor numbers, but the money they bring into the country. So the latest figures are especially heartening.”

Australia, the UK and the US, three of New Zealand’s main markets, showed very healthy growth in February 2000, as did Germany, which has shown sustained improvement over the last few months.

“The figures from these markets are heartening as this is where we have focussed the promotion of our global marketing campaign, the Americas Cup series and other millennium events.”

The traditionally smaller markets also showed a good performance. The Netherlands and Switzerland increased by around 30 percent, while the Americas Cup made its presence felt with visitor arrivals from Italy and France increasing by 105 per cent and 51 per cent respectively.

Significant growth was also seen in emerging markets such as China, where visitor numbers jumped to 3,675, an increase of 121 percent from February 1999. It was also a good month for visitors to New Zealand from South Korea – up by 93 percent, although the market still has a lot of ground to recover to return to pre-Asian crisis levels.

Key points for the month of February 2000 compared with February 1999 show:
 6 percent increase in visitor arrivals from Australia to 534,710 visitors
 21 percent increase in visitor arrivals from the United Kingdom to 30,930 visitors
 16 percent increase in visitor arrivals from the United States of America to 25,305 visitors
 15 percent increase in visitor arrivals from Germany to 7,980 visitors
 29 percent increase in visitor arrivals from the Nordic market to 3,870 visitors
 30 percent increase in visitor arrivals from the Swiss market to 2,070 visitors
 7 percent decrease in visitor arrivals from Japan to 16,425 visitors.

Asian Highlights
 93 percent increase in visitor arrivals from South Korea to 5,475 visitors.
 121 percent increase in visitor arrivals from China to 3,675 visitors.

For more information please contact:
George Hickton
Tourism New Zealand
(04) 9175410
025 817605

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