Who are New Zealand's top spending tourists?

NZ Herald

4 Jan, 2020 01:59 AM3 mins to read

Who are New Zealand's most valuable visitors? Photo / Colin Watts

We're taking a look back at some of our favourite articles from the past year

Hi big spenders!

A recent study by the UNWTO has looked at the spending habits of international travellers to reveal which group of tourists has the deepest pockets.

The report showed Kiwis to be the fourth highest spending travellers, with the average New Zealander leaving $4577 on an international trip.

However we were out performed in generosity by tourists from just across the Tasman.

The average Australian spends $7490 on holiday making them the top spending group of tourists in the world.

In the figures from the UNWTO 2018 report and published by globehunters.ca the number of international tourist arrivals and tourism receipts from the past year were used to rank the top 100 high value travellers.

Australia was first, followed by Luxembourg ($6838), then Lebanon ($6485), with New Zealand just ahead of US tourists who spend an average of $4333 per visit.

However, this is per tourist. When you look at total annual tourist spend the picture gets turned on its head.

The USA is by far the top spending country on tourism spending $333.4 billion from nearly 77 million international departures.

Namibia, on the other hand, is the world's smallest tourism market with just under 1.5 million international departures spending around $330 on each trip.

So should we be inviting more Aussies across the water to see the sights of "Noo Zeelund?"

Looking at the 2018 numbers from MBIE's Immigration and Tourism bureau we see that when in Aotearoa, Australians don't feel quite as generous.

Aussie tourists spend an average of just under $1927 on a visit to New Zealand or $219 a night.

However the total Australian tourism market still accounts for by far the largest group of arrivals and total spend in New Zealand. Last year $2.5 billion crossed the ditch with 1.3 million Aussie tourists.

However, it turns out the biggest average spend in New Zealand comes not from fellow antipodeans but all the way from Germany. An average German tourist spends just under $6000 in a single visit.

"Danke shoen!"