KEY POINTS:
An early Easter has lifted visitor numbers for March but could see April numbers fall further than last year as the key tourist season draws to an end.
Statistics New Zealand figures show 250,800 people visited New Zealand on a short term stay in March, up 5 per cent on March last year.
Strong arrivals from Australia were a driving factor with numbers up by 6700 while visitors from the UK were up 2800, China was up 1800 and US visitors increased by 1400 on the back of a booming cruise industry.
But Korean and Japanese visitors continued their decline, down 3000 and 1300 respectively.
Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton said the early Easter had been good for March but April figures were likely to suffer as a consequence.
"I would be surprised if we saw much growth in April at all. Most people are saying booking rates have dropped."
Hickton said Easter was often seen as the end of the summer tourist season with a natural slowdown after that.
While he expected there to be the usual winter season he said numbers would probably be low now until November and December.
Hickton said Tourism New Zealand would be focusing its efforts on a new campaign announced in China yesterday and on trying to get more Australian visitors to New Zealand for the winter and off-season.
Last year it held a campaign to encourage more Australians to come to New Zealand, which it estimates added an extra $50 million in revenue to New Zealand.
But Hickton said a good winter tourism season would depend on a strong snowfall and people's desire to travel in the current economic climate.
Overall visitor arrivals reached 2.497 million in the year ended March 2008, up 51,900, or 2 per cent, on the previous year.
