Hon Chris Tremain
Associate Minister of Tourism

13 December 2012

New data provides insight into tourism

Associate Tourism Minister Chris Tremain today launched a new data collection that provides a never-before-seen insight into New Zealand’s tourism industry.

The Regional Tourism Indicators, produced by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, is based on anonymous electronic card transactions made since 2008. International data is collected from electronic transactions at over 30,000 retailers across the country. Domestic data is captured from transactions made using BNZ bank cards.

“The Regional Tourism Indicators is a rich source of data that provide a significantly improved insight into where international and domestic tourists are going and what they spend their money on,” says Mr Tremain.

“We can now see the difference between spending patterns between visitors from different countries. For example in the year ending October 2012, 88 per cent of spending from visitors from China was concentrated in three regions: Auckland, Otago and the Bay of Plenty. In Auckland, the most popular destination, Chinese visitors were far more likely to spend money on shopping than tourists from other countries.

“This new data will make it easier for regional tourism organisations to assess the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. It will also help tourism operators target markets that are more likely to spend money on their services.”

Find out more http://www.med.govt.nz/sectors-industries/tourism/tourism-research-data/regional-tourism-indicators

ENDS

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