Visitor arrivals from Australia exceeded 1.5 million for the year ended September 2019, Stats NZ has said
This is an increase of 55,700 (3.8 per cent) 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 says.
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 per cent of visitor arrivals from Australia in the year ended September 2019 were from New South Wales, followed by Queensland (26 per cent) and Victoria (25 per cent). The remaining states/territories made up 13 per cent 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-plus, 25-34, and 55-64 year age groups. This represents an increase of more than 9000 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.
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.
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.
New Zealand-residents returned home from 3.1 million overseas trips in the September 2019 year, an increase of 70,000 (2.3 per cent) 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 1100 (0.4 pe rcent) compared with the same month last year.
