Big jump in late-summer visitors to New Zealand from a year before

Visitor arrivals in February were up more than 50 per cent on the same month a year ago. Photo / Dean Purcell

Overseas visitor arrivals in February were up substantially from a year earlier, new Stats NZ data shows.

Even China, with a sluggish economy, provided many more visitors than in early 2023, with some commentators crediting this to the Chinese New Year.

Overseas visitor arrivals were 362,800 in February this year, up 94,100 year on year.

The biggest changes were in arrivals from China, up 33,700, and the United States, up 15,600

But overall visitor numbers for the month still weren’t at pre-Covid levels, reaching only 87 per cent of the arrival numbers recorded in February 2019.

Of all the visitors in February, 31 per cent were from Australia, 16 per cent from the US, and 11 per cent from China.

Meanwhile, arrivals of New Zealand residents were also up on February last year.

By far the highest number of those were people returning from Australia, at 46 per cent of the total.

Residents returning from China, India, the US and Fiji combined comprised another 23 per cent.

Visitor arrivals in February were up more than 50 per cent on the same month a year ago. Photo / Dean Purcell

Kiwi resident arrivals had now surpassed pre-pandemic levels, at 107 per cent of the arrivals recorded in February 2019.

Stats NZ said overseas visitor arrivals were 3.11 million in the year to the end of February.

That was up by 1.15 million on the year to February 2023.

Visitor numbers plunged when the pandemic arrived in early 2020, and started creeping up slowly in only February 2022.

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 2.82 million in the February 2024 year, increasing by 1.11 million from the prior year.

In February this year, 1.12 million border crossings were recorded. That included 580,600 arrivals and 534,500 departures.

ASB economists today said a Chinese New Year inflow helped boost the February travel numbers.

But ASB said: “High resident short-term departures will likely reduce the economic boost to the New Zealand economy.”

The bank economists said outbound travel numbers also moved up, with 2.96 million overseas trips by resident New Zealanders.

“Pent-up demand for overseas travel from Kiwis and a larger resident population should continue to underpin strong demand for overseas travel.”

And that should offset the boost to domestic spending from strengthening inbound tourism, ASB said.

The data Stats NZ released today is subject to change, so might be revised later.