Tourist spend falls for second year running

The amount of money spent by international visitors to New Zealand has slipped for the second year running, as the global economy weakened tourism spend.

Data released today by The Ministry of Tourism shows spending fell 2.2 per cent in the year to March, to $5.964 billion.

Ministry of Tourism research manager Bruce Bassett said the result reflected a challenging operating environment faced by the tourism industry during the last year.

"While visitors numbers have been improving, overall spend has decreased," he said.

Visitors from Australia had helped soften the impact of the recession, spending $1.8 billion or 9.4 per cent more than they did in the previous year, but the weakening of New Zealand's long-haul markets had affected the overall result.

The global recession was the main driver of weaker performance, with the added influence of last year's influenza pandemic which affected outbound travel for key Asian markets, Bassett said.

The biggest recorded falls were from Japan where spending fell by 22.3 per cent and the UK, 20.4 per cent.

The total amount of money spent by international visitors to New Zealand excluding visitors from Australia fell by 6.4 per cent to $4.2 billion.

Bassett said travellers were more cautious in their spending in the current climate and that this had driven down their overall spend.

"The recession means travellers generally tighten their belts and at the same time unfavourable exchange rates make New Zealand a more expensive place to visit."

New Zealand had been working hard to counter some of the effect by stimulating demand through competitive pricing, he said.

The performance of New Zealand in the coming months would depend on the wider economic performance and the recovery of our key markets, Bassett said.

Total direct and indirect tourist spend for the year to March 2099 was $21.7 billion.