Australian visitor arrivals reach new heights

12 November 2019

Visitor arrivals from Australia exceeded 1.5 million for the year ended September 2019, Stats NZ said today.

This is an increase of 55,700 (3.8 percent) compared with the September 2018 year.

“The strong growth in the Australian market was dampened by a decline in visitor arrivals from the Asian region, in particular China and Malaysia,” population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said.

The lift in visitor arrivals from Australia for the year ended September 2019 coincided with both an increase in the number of flights between Australia and New Zealand and a marketing campaign launched by Tourism New Zealand late last year targeting the Australian market.

Consistent with previous years, 36 percent of visitor arrivals from Australia in the year ended September 2019 were from New South Wales, followed by Queensland (26 percent) and Victoria (25 percent). The remaining states/territories made up 13 percent of all visitor arrivals from Australia.

More than three-quarters of the visitor arrivals from Australia were here to take a holiday or to spend time with family and friends. About one-quarter of all visitor arrivals from Australia were New Zealand citizens.

Annual visitor arrivals from Australia increased across all age groups in the September 2019 year compared with the September 2018 year. The largest increases were in the 65+, 25–34, and 55–64 year age groups. This represents an increase of more than 9,000 visitor arrivals from each age group.

The median age (half are younger and half older than this age) of visitor arrivals to New Zealand from Australia was 39 years. The median age of all overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand was 41 years.

Total visitor arrivals increased in the September year 2019

The total overseas visitor arrivals increased 94,300 (2.5 percent) to 3.9 million for the year ended September 2019, compared with the year ended September 2018. The largest movements were from:
• Australia – up 55,700
• United States – up 28,600
• Taiwan – up 10,400
• China – down 39,900.
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In the month of September 2019, the number of overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand increased by 3,600 to 261,800 compared with the same month last year.

More Kiwis headed home in the September year 2019

New Zealand-residents returned home from 3.1 million overseas trips in the September 2019 year, an increase of 70,000 (2.3 percent) from the year ended September 2018. The largest movements were from:

• Australia – up 36,700
• Indonesia – up 16,400
• China – up 11,600
• Japan – up 6,500
• United States – down 5,900.

In the month of September 2019, New Zealand-resident travellers returned from 279,800 trips, an increase of 1,100 (0.4 percent) compared with the same month last year.

The Government Statistician authorises all statistics and data we publish.

For more information about these statistics:

• Visit International travel: September 2019

ends

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