Kia ora THE
As we head into spring, it’s encouraging to see international visitors contributing strongly to New Zealand and our economy. Data from the International Visitor Survey shows that international visitors spent $11.6 billion in the 12 months leading up to June 2024. This marks a significant increase of 41%, or $3.4 billion, compared to the previous year.
These numbers highlight that tourism remains New Zealand’s second-largest export earner, underscoring its vital role in our nation’s economy. Increased spending by international visitors translates to more tourism jobs, productive businesses, and vibrant communities.
Tourism New Zealand’s strategy to grow year-round and off-peak tourism focuses on increasing the value that international visitors bring to New Zealand’s economy. It’s very encouraging to see this reflected in the latest spend figures.
The top three markets by spend between July 2023 and June 2024 were Australia ($3.5 billion), the USA ($1.7 billion), and China ($1.2 billion). The data also showed that 28% of international holiday visitors travelled to four or more regions in the quarter between April and June 2024.
Tourism New Zealand is committed to supporting a productive and sustainable tourism industry year-round by focusing on growing off-peak visitation. We need to stand out from other destinations to achieve this goal. Our first major initiative to highlight off-peak experiences was the launch of the Stargrazing campaign last month, showcasing New Zealand’s world-class cuisine and stargazing experiences.
To date, the campaign has achieved $32 million in equivalent advertising value (EAV), the amount we would have had to spend to reach the same number of consumers in our key markets. Over 200 pieces of content have been published since the campaign’s launch by event attendees and international media outlets across all our key markets, including 9Travel (Australia), Frankfurter Rundschau (Germany) and Feast Magazine (UK). The hero video content has earned over 4.9 million impressions, reached almost 2.7 million people, and generated over 4.4 million video views with 69,000 engagements.
It’s fantastic to see this work resonate so well with our international audiences. We’ll continue to use the content to promote New Zealand as a year-round destination, aiming to boost arrivals for the 2025 off-peak season.
As always - if you have any questions, feedback, or want to get in touch with myself or one of the Tourism New Zealand team, please contact us.
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