Visitor arrivals from Asia were down 4900 (8.2 per cent) in June 2019 compared with the same month last year, Stats NZ said last week.
The drop in visitors from Asia was offset by an increase in visitors from other places, especially the United States and our largest market, Australia. Total visitor arrivals was almost unchanged.
"We had fewer visitors from Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, but more from Taiwan. Air New Zealand introduced a direct flight to Taiwan in November 2018," population indicators manager Tehseen Islam says.
Visitors from China, our second largest market, were down 600 in June 2019 compared with June 2018.
May and June are typically the lowest months for overseas visitors to New Zealand.
The total number of visitor arrivals was 213,500 in June 2019, up 1300 (0.6 per cent) compared with the same month last year.
The largest changes were from:
United States and Australia – both up 1900
Malaysia – down 1800
Indonesia and Hong Kong – both down 1400
Taiwan – up 1200
Total annual arrivals up 2.7 per cent
The total number of visitor arrivals for the year ended June 2019 was 3.89 million, up 102,900 (2.7 per cent) from the year ended June 2018. This is the slowest annual growth in a June year since 2013, down from a peak of 11 per cent in the year ended June 2016.
