MBIE has published its findings from the first international visitor survey since the pandemic. But what are tourists telling us? Photo / Unsplash
MBIE has published its findings from the first international visitor survey since the pandemic. But what are tourists telling us? Photo / Unsplash
After a three-year pandemic hiatus, the International Visitor Survey has returned with feedback from thousands of recent travellers.
International visitors have been asked to share what they really think about a trip to New Zealand. Brace yourself for uncomfortable home truths.
The survey of international arrivals and departures to our shores helps guide tourism policy. Now, after the survey resumed collecting responses in July 2022, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has collected almost a year worth of data and some interesting results.
Tourists are asked about the nature and length of their stay as well as rating “poor experiences”.
It seems that the biggest gripes from overseas guests are “dangerous driving”, “litter/waste on the streets” and not being able to find a parking space - almost 40 per cent of complaints regarded some experience of “overcrowded vehicle parking lots”.
That being said, 62 per cent of survey questions were returned saying they never had an issue with the topic (or said they did not know if they had encountered it). Visitors were asked to rate how often they experienced seven common complaints on a scale of “1 - Never” to “4 - Always”.
Only 16.4 per cent of complaints regarded “rude behaviour from locals”.
The snapshot of around 7000 respondents was published last month as part of the IVS for Q1 2023. Since resuming there are now 36322 exit surveys which the department can extrapolate from.
The data collection is a big step on the road back to normality for New Zealand’s tourism industry.
However, MBIE says it’s still too early to draw meaningful conclusions from the annual survey.
MBIE manager for tourism, evidence and insights, Amapola Generosa, says we will have to wait to tell if there have been any great sea-changes in international visitors’ attitudes towards New Zealand.
“There are a number of statistical reasons why it is too early to make pre-Covid comparisons,” she said.
There were also a few changes to the survey to simplify it, reducing the number of visitors who gave up half-way through answering, and new questions added to explore issues that have emerged since 2020.
The data eventually is used as a resource to guide government policy, tourism businesses and allocation of spending.
“An example of where this data is being used is the next implementation round of the Tourism Infrastructure Fund,” says Generosa.
Which type of visitor was first back to New Zealand?
Although the survey was only resumed in July last year, it can point to some conclusions.
Overwhelmingly the first international tourists came to visit friends and relatives after a long pandemic travel pause.
Out of all accommodation responses, “staying with family or friends” was the number one option cited - with around 43 per cent of all travellers selecting it to describe their overnight stays.
The number of arrivals saying they were here to see whānau is still high, compared to historical levels, says Generosa. The VFR (visiting friends and relatives) respondents are still roughly equal to holidaymakers paying their way around, versus 1 VFR respondee to 1.8 holidaymakers in 2019.
There was a “VFR arrivals surge” around Christmas and the traditional summer holiday period.
“This suggests that during the traditional holiday season, there was still a pent-up demand for family and friends who haven’t been able to visit since the borders closed.”
That doesn’t mean that hotels and accommodation businesses have been missing out.
While 85 per cent of VFR visitors said they took up offers of free accommodation, around 27 per cent said they used Airbnbs or online rentals on their trip.
The number of international arrivals visiting friends and relatives continues to be disproportionately high. Photo / Getty Images
Freedom camping back at pre-pandemic levels
Those visiting laybys and campsites might be forgiven for thinking the pandemic never happened.
Another top accommodation option in the IVS results was “freedom camping”, with 5.8 per cent of respondents in the Autumn first quarter this year saying they spent at least some of their trip in a self-contained camper. This number is not matched in MBIE records until March 2017.
Most freedom campers leave at the end of summer, so the data traditionally peaks around March. Before the pandemic, this data for March 2018 and 2019 peaked at 4.1 and 4.8 per cent.
It ties into the narrative of the first visitors being drawn by New Zealand’s freedom camping, with few commitments and time to spend on the open road.
However, Generosa hesitates to draw conclusions just yet. She says there are huge fluctuations in the “volatile” numbers attached to seasonal tourist groups.
“High-level results cannot yet be meaningfully compared with pre-Covid,” she says.
The share of seasonal freedom campers has returned to pre-pandemic levels, with barely a dent. Photo / George Novak
With most of the questions on the IVS being optional and “visitor sentiment” being tied to specific tourism experiences, a lot of the results will be skewed. It will take some time for feedback to be adjusted and to be significantly and directly comparable with pre-pandemic data.
Visitors recommending New Zealand as a holiday location is skewed by the number of VFR arrivals, most of whom are already familiar with the country and delighted to be back.
“This is also the case, but less significantly, for other sentiment questions like perception of our environment (natural resources, rivers and lakes) or Māori culture.”
In the environmental impressions most of the factors reflecting visitors perceptions of New Zealand’s nature and conservation were rated “Good”. Eight out of nine criteria were scored above 4 on a scale of “1 - Very Poor” to “5 - Very Good”.
“Protection of wildlife (whales, penguins, albatross, kiwi, etc)” was rated an average of 3.77 - “Neither good nor poor”.
One dataset that could not be dismissed was where international visitors were voting with their feet and choosing to spend their holidays.
Regional Tourism Organisations for Manawatu, Wellington (both up 12 per cent), Wanganui (up 9 per cent), and Tairawhiti (up 1 per cent) all reported rises in international visitor volume from pre-Covid levels for May. The Coromandel has reported the biggest fall in international visitor levels on this time in 2019 (down 57 per cent), largely due to ongoing infrastructure damage from storms this year.
Generosa said that the IVS would continue to gather data for stakeholders and be adapted to reflect tourism trends in New Zealand.
The Football World Cup is one of the key topics the IVS will be used to provide tourism data and feedback on.
“MBIE intends to add new questions to the IVS, to enable measurement for the Fifa Women’s World Cup audience,” she said, on top of general questions tracking where they went, how much is spent, brand awareness and length of stay.
Whoever raises the trophy next month, the tourism winners from the tournament will be revealed when IVS is published in September.
