Aussie surge gives tourism breathing space

Arrivals from Australia were up 23 per cent in April. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Visitor arrival numbers are holding up better than expected but economists warn the increasing dependence on Australia is likely to hit tourism spending levels.

Statistics New Zealand figures released yesterday show arrivals for April were up 9 per cent on last year mostly because of the shift in Easter from March last year to April this year.

If both March and April visitor numbers are combined and compared to the same two months last year, arrivals are down 1.8 per cent.

For the April year they are down 2.7 per cent to 2.417 million.

Ministry of Tourism research manager Bruce Bassett said given the global recession the result was pretty good.

"It's a lesser decline than many were expecting," he said.

Bassett said overall it showed the tourism industry was holding up but for individual tourism businesses their success was likely to be dependent on which markets they focused on.

Those who targeted Asian markets were likely to be facing harder times Bassett said, as visitors from South Korea, Japan and China continued to decline whereas those who mainly targeted Australian and domestic visitors were still doing well.

In April visitors from Australia were up 23 per cent or 16,800 people mainly because of the shift in the timing of Easter. For the April year visitors from Australia were up 3 per cent.

Those coming from across the Tasman now make up 41 per cent of all international visitors up from 28 per cent in the year ending April 2007. And that has some worried about tourism earnings.

An ASB economist said the shift in the type of visitor coming to New Zealand was more likely to have an impact than the number of people coming.

"The share of visitors from the US, UK and Japan have slipped.

"As long-haul visitors tend to stay longer and spend more, this shift in tourist markets will be having a more pronounced impact on the tourism sector than the arrival figures alone would suggest."

UBS senior economist Robin Clements said the switch from more visitors from Australia would buffer losses from elsewhere but spend per head would likely be lower as a result.

"The risk still looks to be the downside in the near term," he said.

Tourism brings in more than $20 billion a year and around half of that comes from international visitors.

INCOMING

April visitor arrivals from New Zealand's biggest source markets

* Australia +22.8 per cent
* UK +1 per cent
* US +1.4 per cent
* China -6 per cent
* Japan -15.7 per cent