Travel boom: Kiwis take overseas holidays in record numbers

Australia was the most popular destination for Kiwis who arrived home in January.

New Zealand holiday-makers took off overseas in record numbers in summer, Stats NZ said today.

There were 328,100 New Zealand-resident travellers who arrived back in January 2024, an all-time high for the month. This exceeded the pre-Covid numbers of 320,900 in January 2019 and 326,300 in January 2020.

“Arrivals are typically high in January as New Zealanders return from summer breaks, mostly from visiting friends and relatives, and holidaying abroad,” population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said.

The record number of New Zealand-resident arrivals for any month was 345,100 in July 2018.

In January this year, Australia was the top destination for New Zealand-resident travellers, followed by China, the United States, Fiji and India

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals are people living in New Zealand and arriving back after an absence of less than 12 months.

But while Kiwis were spending up overseas, inbound tourism remains static.

There were 326,400 overseas visitor arrivals in January 2024. This was up 58,100 (22 per cent) from January 2023.

“While outbound travel from New Zealand has returned to pre-pandemic levels, overseas visitor arrivals were still about 20 per cent lower than they were,” Islam said.

The main sources of overseas visitors were Australia, the US, Britain and China.

In the year ended January 2024, overseas visitor arrivals totalled 3 million, compared with a peak of 3.9 million in the year ended October 2019.

Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism