More visitors with less time, money

Visitor arrival numbers continue to grow modestly but warning bells are sounding as the strong dollar means tourist visits are shorter and less money is spent.

Latest Statistics New Zealand figures show there were 250,100 short-term overseas visitor arrivals last month - up 5 per cent, or 12,000, on February last year (which had an extra day because of leap year).

But the total combined number of days stayed by all visitors who arrived in February fell 6 per cent, from 5.51 million in 2004 to 5.2 million.

The average stay was 21 days last month for arrivals, compared with 23 days for visitors arriving in February last year.

Deutsche Bank chief economist Ulf Schoefisch said that although visitor arrivals were 5 per cent higher than a year earlier, all of the growth happened in the first six months of the year, with the trend in arrivals basically flat since the September quarter.

"With foreign tourists, on average, spending less a day than a year ago [according to the International Visitor survey], we estimate that earnings growth from international tourism has been negative recently," Schoefisch said.

The culprit is the strong dollar - making New Zealand less attractive as a destination in the first place and constraining the spending power of tourists once they arrive.

Seasonally adjusted monthly visitor arrivals rose less than 1 per cent last month, after a fall of 3 per cent in January this year.

Visitor numbers from Hong Kong were up 2700, or 170 per cent, from China up 3700, or 58 per cent, from the United States up 2400, or 10 per cent, and from Australia up 2400, or 3 per cent.

Statistics NZ said the change in the timing of the Chinese/Lunar New Year, from January in 2004 to February in 2005, was a likely contributor to the rise in visitors from many Asian countries, particularly China and Hong Kong.

For the year ended February 2005, there were 2.365 million visitor arrivals, up 219,800 - 10 per cent - on the February 2004 year. Holidaymakers accounted for 51 per cent of the overseas visitors, 28 per cent came to visit friends or relatives, 11 per cent came on business, just over 2 per cent came for a conference and another 2 per cent came for education or medical reasons.