Visitor numbers slump 10pc in March

Visitor numbers fell 10pc in March. File photo / Paul Estcourt

The number of short term overseas visitors travelling to this country dropped 10 per cent last month compared to March 2008.

Publishing the figures today, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said the shift in the timing of Easter, from March in 2008 to April this year contributed to the drop in visitor arrivals to 226,500.

Even with that factor, today's figures are another indication of the difficulties facing the tourism industry.

The number of visitors last month was the lowest for a March since 2004, and mean that visitor arrivals have now decreased for 10 out of the past 12 months when compared with the same month of the previous year.

Last month visitor numbers from Britain were down 9400 or 26 per cent compared to March 2008, those from the United States were down 5100 or 20 per cent, from Australia the decline was 4300 or 5 per cent.

But visitors from China might be providing a glint of hope , with arrivals up 1000 or 9 per cent. The increase included a 2100 rise in holidaymakers and a decline of 500 in business travellers.

Visitor numbers from China rose 200 in December, and were up by 100 for January and February combined to take account of the Chinese New Year, SNZ said.

Those gains came after six months of decreases between June and November last year, following a large earthquake last May and the Olympic Games in August.

For the year, total visitor arrivals fell 96,300 or 4 per cent to 2.4 million.

In March, New Zealand residents left on 126,700 short term overseas trips, down 8100 or 6 per cent from a year earlier.

Visits to Fiji were down by 2000 or 35 per cent from March 2008, while those to Australia were down 1700 or 2 per cent, and to Britain were down 1000 or 19 per cent.

For the year to March, departures of New Zealand residents declined 3 per cent to 1.94m.

- NZPA