Arrivals

Overseas visitor numbers from the United States to New Zealand in July have outpaced even pre-Covid 2019, possibly due to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, according to Stats NZ.

International visitor arrivals will reach close to 3.9 million in the year to June 2025, says the association’s latest forecast.

Overseas visitor arrivals rose to 178,400 in the June 2023 month, more than double the 83,800 recorded for the same month last year.

The Chinese market is running at about 30% of pre-Covid, according to Stats NZ’s latest travel and migration numbers.

International visitor arrivals to New Zealand in May 2023 recovered to 73% of the same month in pre-Covid 2019, according to the latest travel figures from Stats NZ.

This is more than 83% of arrivals seen over winter in pre-Covid 2019.

One year after New Zealand’s borders started opening, the country’s major source markets have seen substantial increases in arrivals and are closing in on pre-Covid levels.

New Zealand Customs has outlined how it plans to introduce the digital New Zealand Traveller Declaration and revealed details of when it will be made accessible to visitors.

The government has decided to phase in its new digital travel declarations system across the country’s international airports, as opposed to implementing it all at once as originally planned.

Westpac economists are forecasting a continued rebound in tourism and hospitality, but the pace has slowed down.

International visitor arrivals in March are just shy of an 80% recovery compared to pre-Covid 2019, according to data from Stats NZ.

Queenstown Airport saw a strong recovery in international arrivals over the summer months, with 219,865 overseas passenger movements recorded between December 2022 and February 2023.

Overseas visitor arrivals rose to 266,900 in February 2023, up 261,600 from the same month last year because of the border being closed then, according to Stats NZ’s latest travel figures.

The United States was the strongest recovering visitor market in January 2023, with arrivals totalling 40,091, according to Stats NZ’s latest travel numbers.

Auckland International Airport Limited said Cyclone Gabrielle impacted international passenger movements in February 2023, which totalled 654,665 including transits, or 69% of the same month in pre-Covid 2019.

International visitor arrivals in January 2023 recovered to almost 65% of that seen in the same month in pre-Covid 2020, according to the latest travel figures from Stats NZ.

Strong annual increases in inbound visitor numbers are expected in Asia Pacific this year, with between 383 million to 713 million international visitor arrivals.

Even if demand surged over 2023, it would take time for supply – in this case, airline capacity – to catch up, says the bank.

That equates to 36.7% of the 3.89 million seen in the pre-Covid peak year of 2019.

Biosecurity NZ says the new digital system will give it an opportunity to send relevant messaging to help improve compliance.

Overseas visitor arrivals in November 2022 reached 62% of the same month in pre-Covid 2019, according to Stats NZ’s latest travel data.

Overseas visitor arrivals were 161,631 in the October 2022 month, a 4283% increase compared to the same month last year – when the borders were closed – and recovering to 57% of pre-Covid 2019 figures of 283,834, according to Stats NZ.

Overseas visitor arrivals increased in September 2022 but are still below the numbers seen for the same month pre-Covid, according to Stats NZ.

The Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee is seeking public feedback on the digitisation of paper arrival cards and other requirements related to border management matters.

Total border crossings into NZ grow again in August with the opening to non-visa waiver countries.

For the first month since March 2020, the number of overseas visitor arrivals has exceeded 100,000, said Stats NZ.

Border crossings have continued along a steady increase in June as numbers hit the highest they had ever been since March 2020.

Arrivals into New Zealand are growing fast as international travel resumes and the border fully reopens, according to Stats NZ’s latest border arrivals data.

Overseas visitor arrivals rose to 72,800 in May 2022, up 378% compared with the same month last year, according to Stats NZ’s latest travel figures.

More than a quarter-of-a-million border crossings in April 2022 was the highest for a month since travel restrictions were introduced in March 2020, says Stats NZ.

Overseas visitor arrivals were 28,600 in the March 2022 month, up 522% or 24,000 from the same month last year, says Stats NZ.

International passengers through Auckland Airport, excluding transits, reached 110,056, a 330.1% increase from 25,590 from March 2021.

Delaying the border easing from January to February saw arrivals, especially from Australia, drop.

But it is still far short of the 11,000 or so daily arrivals seen pre-Covid.

There were 20,772 total border crossings in October 2021, with 1,268 more arrivals than departures, according to provisional data from StatsNZ.

Auckland Airport total passenger numbers fell to 41,682 in October 2021, down 92.5% on the same month last year.

Delta put the brakes on international travel in September.

A survey of New Zealanders and essential workers who returned to the country between 1 August 2020 and 1 April 2021 for a period of longer than three months shows family-related or compassionate reasons ranked top.

Auckland Airport total passenger numbers fell to 29,874 in September 2021, down 92.2% on the same month last year.

The number of people crossing New Zealand’s border dropped by around 75% in August 2021 compared to previous months, says Stats NZ.

Visitor arrivals from Australia coming for a holiday, VFR or business in July 2021 fell from the levels seen in June, while more Kiwis holidayed in the Cook Islands, according to Stats NZ.

The trans-Tasman bubble led to an increase of international visitors by approximately 500% in comparison to the weeks prior, according to figures from Data Ventures.

Nearly 7,000 more people departed New Zealand than arrived in May 2021, says Stats NZ.

Overseas arrivals in the month since the two-way bubble with Australia opened are up nine-fold compared with arrivals in the preceding 31-day period.

The opening of the trans-Tasman bubble on 19 April 2021 has tipped the balance in favour of arrivals above departures, says Stats NZ.

The body lays out two scenarios for international arrivals.

There’s been no surge of ex-pat Kiwis returning home due to the pandemic, says Stats NZ.

Overseas visitor arrivals for the year to December 2020 fell to 996,350, down 74.4% from the 3.89 million recorded in 2019.

Extra capacity sees December domestic travel up 7.5% on November but still down a third on 2019’s pre-Covid Christmas season.

Overseas visitor arrivals fell by 98.6%, or 367,000, to 5,100 in November 2020, compared with the same month a year earlier, says Stats NZ.