Chinese New Year lifts visitor arrivals

Chinese New Year boosted the number of visitor arrivals to New Zealand from China in February 2024, according to data released by Stats NZ today.

There were 37,900 visitor arrivals from China in February 2024, an increase of 33,700 from February 2023. This is the highest number of monthly visitor arrivals from China since 50,300 in January 2020, shortly before pandemic-related travel restrictions were introduced worldwide.

“Monthly arrivals from China typically peak in January or February each year, depending on the timing of Chinese New Year,” says population indicators manager Tehseen Islam.

“This is the largest uptick in Chinese visitors to New Zealand since China removed its pandemic quarantine rules for arrivals in early 2023.”

China was the third largest source of overseas visitors to New Zealand in February 2024, behind Australia and the United States.

Overall, there were 362,800 visitor arrivals in February 2024, an increase of 94,100 from February 2023. About one-third of this increase was attributable to visitors from China.

Record February for New Zealanders travelling

There were 204,500 New Zealand-resident travellers who arrived back from short-term overseas trips in February 2024.

This was a record for any February month and the first to exceed 200,000. The previous record for a February month was 190,600 in February 2019.

The record number of New Zealand-resident arrivals for any month was 345,100 in July 2018.

In February 2024, Australia was the top destination for New Zealand-resident travellers, followed by China, India, the United States, and Fiji.