New MBIE report on visitors’ travel patterns

Media release

22 November 2016

New MBIE report on visitors’ travel patterns

A rising number of tourists are visiting New Zealand during autumn and exploring outside the main centres, but there are opportunities to further spread the benefits of tourism, a new report released today by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) shows.

The second in MBIE’s Tourism Insight Series, the Regional and Seasonal Dispersal report provides a clear picture of when tourists are arriving and which regions they are visiting, building a profile of international tourists’ travel patterns while in New Zealand.

“The insights in this report will inform government work to support tourism and enable the sector to make planning decisions to address pressure points and take advantage of emerging opportunities,” Deputy Chief Executive Labour, Science and Enterprise Paul Stocks says.

“All areas in New Zealand have benefited to some degree from the strong growth in tourism over the past three years. Waikato and the West Coast, for example, have seen 16 per cent average growth in international visitor spending year-on-year.

“However, overall tourist spending is not evenly distributed across the country. In the year to June 2016, 65 per cent of the total international visitor spend was concentrated in the ‘gateway’ regions of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown.”

Summer continues to be our busiest season, but shoulder seasons are becoming more popular, Mr Stocks says.

“Visitor arrivals in the summer season are generally twice the number of the winter season, but the speed of growth over 2015 and 2016 has been the fastest in autumn. This shows that work by Government and the sector to spread visitors throughout the year is beginning to gain traction.”

The Tourism Insight Series is produced by MBIE in support of a suite of initiatives that form the government tourism strategy.

“The tourism strategy brings together work being done across government to help grow the economic contribution of tourism. The strategy is designed to help the sector attract high-value visitors, not only to tourism hotspots during peak seasons, but to a range of regions and throughout the year,” Mr Stocks says.

“While our figures are from prior to the recent earthquake, which will certainly affect Kaikoura’s visitor industry over the short term, this work remains important to boosting and supporting tourism in all parts of New Zealand.”

Some facts from the Regional and Seasonal Dispersal report:

• In the year to June 2016, Germans spent the largest proportion of money in non-gateway regions, at 53 per cent of their total spend while in New Zealand. Chinese spent the least, at 21 per cent.

• However, China’s spend in non-gateway regions ($293 million) was greater than Germany’s ($273 million) as a result of the sheer size of the market.

• Although the majority of visitors prefer to visit during summer, older travellers are more likely to travel in shoulder seasons, especially autumn.

• The peak season for Indian travellers is autumn, and winter for Indonesians.

Read the Regional and Seasonal Dispersal report here: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-industries/tourism/tourism-research-data/tourism-insight-series.

Download a summary of the Government’s tourism strategy here: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-industries/tourism/tourism-strategy.

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