Visitor numbers down, but arrivals from China grow

Visitor numbers down, but arrivals from China continue to grow

23 May 2018

In the April 2018 month, visitor arrivals fell 28,000 to 283,900, compared with April last year, Stats NZ said today. As reported in International travel and migration: April 2018, this fall was due to a record April month last year and seasonal changes in the holidays.

As most international arrivals tend to come in through Auckland, Auckland Airport was the most affected with visitor arrivals falling 22,200 to 204,300 for the month. Changes for the other main airports were as follows:
• Christchurch (down 1,200 to 43,100)
• Wellington (down 1,600 to 16,500)
• Queenstown (down 1,000 to 18,600).

Arrivals from China continue to rise

Visitors from China were the exception to these downward movements; visitor numbers for the April month were up 7,200 from April 2017 to 46,500.

This month’s visitor numbers from China were boosted by an incentive-based scheme launched by Amway China. This scheme was secured by Destination Queenstown, Tourism New Zealand, Immigration New Zealand, and Air New Zealand as an initiative to help boost tourist numbers in the shoulder season.

Arrival numbers from China had an average annual growth of 18 percent since the April 2012 year – growing from 168,200 in the April 2012 year to 444,900 in the April 2018 year.

Australia still on top

Despite the rapid growth in arrivals from China, Australia is still by far the largest single contributor to visitor numbers. Over 1.47 million visitors arrived from Australia in the April 2018 year, up 41,500 from the previous April year and accounting for almost 40 percent of all international visitor arrivals:

• Auckland Airport took the majority of these Australian visitors (58 percent), accounting for 848,500 of all arrivals from Australia (up 9,600 from last year).
• Christchurch Airport was next with 260,000 (up 21,200).
• Queenstown Airport saw 197,900 arrivals (up 17,600).
• Wellington Airport had 152,000 arrivals (down 7,400).

Dunedin and other airports and seaports accounted for the remaining 16,200 arrivals (up 500 from last year).

For more information about these statistics:
• Visit International visitor arrivals to New Zealand: April 2018
• See CSV files for download

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