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International travel to and from New Zealand continued to strengthen in the year to November 2025, with overseas visitor arrivals rising, border crossings nearing pre-pandemic levels and the United States recording its strongest year on record.
New data from Stats NZ shows 347,600 overseas visitor arrivals in November 2025, up 26,400 on November 2024 and equivalent to 93 per cent of November 2019 levels.
The largest increases in monthly overseas visitor arrivals were from Australia, up 9,500, China, up 7,800, and the United States, up 3,800. Canada was up 1,900, while arrivals from the United Kingdom fell by 1,100.
Australia remained New Zealand’s largest source market in November, accounting for 39 per cent of overseas visitor arrivals, compared with 36 per cent in November 2019. The United States made up 12 per cent of arrivals, up slightly on pre-pandemic levels, while China accounted for 8 per cent, still below its 11 per cent share in 2019. The United Kingdom represented 6 per cent, unchanged from pre-pandemic levels.
Returning New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals also increased in November, reaching 247,200, up 15,400 on the same month last year. This was a record for a November month, exceeding the previous high of 233,700 set in 2019.
Most returning New Zealand-resident travellers arrived from Australia, up 11,300 year on year. Arrivals from the Cook Islands increased by 1,300 and from China by 1,000, while arrivals from the United States fell by 1,800.
Looking at the full year to November 2025, overseas visitor arrivals totalled 3.48 million, up 214,000 on the previous year. Growth was led by Australia, which rose by 148,000 to 1.51 million visitors, followed by the United States, up 25,000 to 385,000, and the United Kingdom, up 15,000 to 190,000.
The 385,000 arrivals from the United States marked a record for any year from that market.
New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals totalled 3.09 million in the November 2025 year, up 111,000 year on year. The largest increases were from Australia, up 73,000 to 1.29 million, China, up 17,000 to 165,000, and Japan, up 16,000 to 91,000. India and Indonesia were each up 13,000, while arrivals from the Philippines rose by 12,000. Arrivals from the United States declined by 12,000 to 156,000.
Several markets recorded their highest-ever annual numbers of returning New Zealand-resident travellers, including Australia, China, the Cook Islands, India, Japan and the Philippines.
Border activity also continued to recover. There were 1.17 million border crossings in November 2025, made up of 604,600 arrivals and 565,600 departures. This compared with 1.09 million border crossings in November 2024 and was equivalent to 99 per cent of the 1.19 million crossings recorded in November 2019.
The growing use of the digital New Zealand Traveller Declaration is also evident in the data. In November 2025, just over two in three travellers completed a digital arrival card, following the staged rollout of the system across Christchurch, Wellington, Queenstown and Auckland airports from mid-2023. Stats NZ says the introduction of the digital declaration has not affected the range of statistical information available.
