KEY POINTS:
October international visitor numbers reached a record this year, despite the continuing strength of the New Zealand dollar.
New Zealand attracted 186,600 short-term overseas visitors last month, up 6 per cent on the same month last year.
Arrivals from China were up 25 per cent, while visitors from Korea increased 13 per cent, and visitors from Britain were up 5 per cent.
National Bank chief economist Cameron Bagrie said the numbers looked strong considering the strength of the dollar.
"If you're getting [these numbers] when the currency is up at the sort of levels it is, you could imagine what the numbers could go to if the dollar comes down," Bagrie said.
"When that dollar goes down the tourism sector is going to be off to the races, because that's going to make a New Zealand holiday pretty cheap."
After declining to below US60c earlier this year, the dollar has recovered strongly and was just under US67c last night.
But Bagrie said the improvement in visitor numbers followed several flat months for the tourism sector.
"I wouldn't get carried away. It's certainly encouraging but it's coming off a low base and the sector had been struggling for a little while," he said.
Forsyth Barr analyst Rob Mercer was surprised at the increase.
He hadn't expected a recovery until after Christmas when Air New Zealand started marketing its upgraded fleet and its new routes to London and San Francisco.
Mercer expected the improvements to bring growing long-haul visitor numbers for the next two years.
Long-haul visitors were more valuable than short-haul because they generally spent more and needed more accommodation, he said.
"If we get a 5 per cent increase in long haul [visitors] it's worth 10-15 per cent out of Australia."
Tourism New Zealand said its $6 million marketing campaign targeting Australian visitors was working.
There were 8000, or 12 per cent, more visitors from Australia in October than in the same month last year.
"Australia has been the big mover and we're starting to see the impact of [the campaign] now," said chief executive George Hickton.
Holiday arrivals alone were up 16 per cent on October last year, he said.
A change in Australian school holiday dates at the start of October would have helped, but only for the start of the month, Hickton said.
Visitor numbers from Japan continued to decline, dropping 24 per cent to 9000 arrivals, the second-lowest total in October for the past decade.
Mercer said the Japanese market had been "problematic" for several years because of changes to Air New Zealand's flights.
Short-term arrivals in October
Total: 186,000, up 6 per cent on last October
From Australia: Up 12 per cent
From China: Up 25 per cent
From Korea: Up 13 per cent
From Britain: Up 5 per cent
From Japan: Down 24 per cent
