International visitors spend $10.3bn in NZ in June year

Friday 19 August 2016 03:47 PM

International visitors spend $10.3bn in NZ in June year, Tourism NZ says

By Sophie Boot

Aug. 19 (BusinessDesk) - International visitors brought over $10 billion into New Zealand over the last year, Tourism New Zealand says.

In the year ended June 30, the financial contribution from international visitors was $10.3 billion, up 18 percent from 2015, with the median foreigner spending $2,000 here, figures from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's international visitor survey show. Tourists brought in $6.3 billion, people visiting friends and relatives spent $2.1 billion, and people travelling for business $882 million.

Expenditure growth was driven by Asian visitors, with spending up 36.8 percent to a total $3.4 billion in the year. Visitors from South Korea spent $293 million, up 92 percent on 2015, and Chinese visitors spending rose 33 percent to $1.8 billion, making them the second highest spenders after Australians.

The most valuable individual visitors were Germans, who spent a median $4,900 each, followed by visitors from the rest of Europe excluding the United Kingdom. Visitors from the US, China and Canada spent a median $3,300 each. Expenditure was calculated excluding travellers younger than 15 and excluding airfares.

In the year to June 2016, overseas short-term visitor arrivals reached 3.31 million, up 11 percent on the year earlier, according to Statistics NZ.

On an annual basis, Australians made up 537,152 of the 1.7 million holidaymakers in that year, while China was the second biggest pool at 307,504. Business visitors were down 2.5 percent in June from a year earlier to 22,704, but up 4 percent on an annual basis to 281,312, nearly two-thirds of whom came from across the Tasman.

(BusinessDesk)

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