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Targeted marketing and selling New Zealand education as more than just a language study destination have paid off for education "exporters" as international students start returning in record numbers.
Some education providers are offering optional extras such as golf and horse-riding.
Enrolment of international students from traditional markets such as China and South Korea are up, but the biggest growth is from new markets such as India, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.
According to Education NZ, between July and November the number of students from India rose by 390 per cent compared with the same period in 2006 - a jump from 268 to 1314 students - followed by Saudi Arabia from 75 to 298 students (297 per cent) and Vietnam from 53 to 191 students (260 per cent).
Education NZ spokesman Stuart Boag said the lower New Zealand dollar had little to do with this upward trend, but it would certainly act as a competitive stimulus in some markets in the future.
"There would have been about a six-month lead time for these students and they would have made their decision to come here when the dollar was considerably higher," he said. "What we are seeing is a consistent upward trend in the last three years that has little to do with the dollar, but the lower dollar certainly helps."
Mr Boag said the international education industry was worth $2.3 billion to New Zealand and each fee-paying student contributed about $40,000 to the economy, paying $16,000 in annual school fees alone.
"It is also expected that family and friends will visit students who are here on a longer term, contributing even more to our economy," he said.
Education NZ chief executive Robert Stevens said he remained cautiously optimistic about being able to maintain the positive trend amid the current global international crisis. He said though there were concerns, he did not believe the economic situation would torpedo the industry.
Some export education agents say changes to the way New Zealand education is marketed overseas have helped to halt the drop in the number of international students coming here. From 2002 to last year, it plunged from 126,919 to 90,934.
Ravi Naidu, an independent agent based in Mumbai, India, said marketing efforts to promote non-academic courses such as animation, film production and hospitality had been effective in generating "great interest" among Indian students in coming to New Zealand.
Hospitality student Naresh Kumar, 18, also from Mumbai, said Bollywood movies had made NZ a "cool" destination for Indians.
Mr Boag said students from countries such as India came here wanting a "work or migration outcome", and completing a course here would give them added immigration points.
Do Hee Seo, the Auckland representative of Bona School - an agency that markets New Zealand education in South Korea - said adding golf as an optional extra to the Korean students' study package had been pivotal to bringing Korean students here.
"Learning English is something Koreans can do everywhere, but many see New Zealand as the best place in the world to learn golf. They also see New Zealand as safer and more peaceful than other Western countries."
Korean student numbers were up 12 per cent to 1754 in the four months to November.
Ms Seo said Korean parents were signing up children as young as 10 to study here because they believed that the younger the students were, the more information they would be able to absorb.
