KEY POINTS:
A Growing number of visitors making return trips to New Zealand is a sign the industry is delivering on its promise, says Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton.
Data released by the Ministry of Tourism this week showed that 49.5 per cent of visitors in the year ending June were making a repeat visit, continuing a trend of growth from 42.3 per cent in 1998.
The study - conducted with 5000 people aged 15 years and older at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch airports - equated to 1.1 million return visits.
The repeat visitor numbers indicated how well tourism operators were performing, Hickton said.
"The fact that we've had very good growth overall during that period ... the fact that repeat visitation has also grown is a very good indication that we're delivering quality experiences."
Holiday repeat visits were up from 23 per cent in 1998 to about 28 per cent, while 77 per cent of those visiting friends and family were making repeat trips, up from 75 per cent in 1998.
The study also showed that total spending by international visitors in the year ending June was up 16.4 per cent at $6.98 billion.
In theory, if 49.5 per cent of these visitors made a return trip the tourism sector could benefit to the tune of $3.46 billion in future earnings.
"I think those are the sorts of things that tend to get lost on people about this industry," Hickton said. "There's a huge capacity to drive earnings for the country out of tourism."
State-funded Tourism New Zealand gets $69 million a year to market the country internationally, but it was largely the experience tourists received when they arrived here that determined whether they came back.
"We ... like to send people back to their home as a walking brochure for the country," Hickton said.
"This whole word of mouth marketing is crucial and will become even more important in future."
Hickton suspected that Australia and the UK were helping drive return trip growth thanks to cheaper transtasman airfares and people becoming more accepting of long-haul travel.
The 16.4 per cent jump in total spending was helped by the Lions tour, which boosted UK visitor outlay by 19.6 per cent to $1.1 billion.
Visitor survey
Year ending June:
* $7 billion total spend by visitors.
* 49.5pc of visitors were making a return trip.
