Same sex marriage in NZ benefits economy to tune of A$550 million

Australia is yet to legalise same sex marriage. Photo / 123RF

Legalising same sex marriage has been highly lucrative for New Zealand with Australian same sex couples spending more than A$550 million tying the knot here, according to the Daily Mail.

In 2011 New Zealand became the first Pacific nation to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.

Australia is yet to legalise same sex marriage.

About half of the same sex couples who married in New Zealand in 2016 were from overseas, the Daily Mail reports, with 58 per cent of them coming from Australia.

In 2016 alone 270 Aussie couples wed in New Zealand, according to an ANZ Bank report which put the cost of the ceremonies at about AU$550 million.

ANZ senior economist Cherelle Murphy told the Daily Mail that Australia was definitely missing out on business because same sex marriage was still illegal in the country.

"We're probably also losing wedding-related consumption to overseas destinations."

Last year 483 Kiwi same sex couples and 473 same sex couples from overseas got married or had a civil union in New Zealand.