German tourists spend a lot, slowly

Sascha Reynolds is typical of German tourists in New Zealand who spend $4173 on average. Picture / Dean Purcell

Sascha Reynolds wants to have a good holiday and is prepared to spend money to get it.

"I want to do a bungy jump here, go out," said Reynolds, who lives near Frankfurt. "I definitely came here to spend money, not to save on it. I want to have fun."

The German tourist expects to spend about $5000 on his three-month holiday in New Zealand. So far, he has spent about $1000 in three weeks and intends staying until the end of June.

Official figures out yesterday revealed that spending by overseas visitors topped $6.5 billion last year and the Germans were among the best at flashing the cash.

Singaporeans came top of the big spenders with an average spend of $4670 per person - which could have been affected by unusual results in a smaller sample - followed by the Germans with $4173 each.

Reynolds and his ilk were the sort of high-yielding, high-spending visitors tourism operators were interested in, said Fiona Luhrs, chief executive of Tourism Industry Association New Zealand.

"We don't want to attract people who haven't got any money to spend," Luhrs said. "It's all about how much they spend rather than how many people come and the Germans get a lot of annual leave, far more than, say, Americans do, and they tend to stay here for longer."

A German tourist might visit for four weeks compared with an American who might only stay for two.

Whether German tourists were staying in backpacker accommodation or booking into up-market lodges they were generally good spenders, she added.

Ian Lewington, acting chief executive of Tourism Holdings, said Germans were big independent travellers "so they hire a lot of motorhomes ... and they stay a long time so they do have a high spend".

"If we can get more visitors from that neck of the wood, all the better," Lewington said.

Australians generally stayed for less time and had a lower average spend of $1873 but still led the way in total spend with $1.494 billion.

The UK total spend was up 17 per cent at $1.042 billion - boosted by an estimated $96 million spent by Lions fans - making it the only other country to top a billion dollars.

The tourist spend from the key Asian markets of Japan, Korea and China were all down, by 21 per cent, 16 per cent and 33 per cent respectively.

The total spend by all nationalities for the year was up by 3 per cent at $6.504 billion.

The Ministry of Tourism surveyed 5000 visitors as part of the study, at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch airports.

Ministry research manager Bruce Bassett said it had been a challenging year with high exchange rates, competing destinations, aviation sector issues and a fall-off in the education area.