Kia ora THE
As many of you continue to respond to the impacts of recent extreme weather across parts of Aotearoa New Zealand, we recognise the strain this has placed on some businesses, teams, and communities. We appreciate your resilience and encourage you to stay connected with your local RTOs. Thank you for the manaakitanga you continue to show visitors.
Events beyond our shores are also shaping the global travel landscape. Thankfully, since the conflict in the Middle East broke out in late February, the short-term impact on travel to New Zealand to date has been limited. The initial issues for travellers transiting through the Middle East has largely resolved. Stats NZ has provisional international arrivals for the month of March tracking strongly, up over 15.8% compared to last year. Forward bookings over the next 3 months continue to look positive too, at 5% above last year.
We do foresee a risk for tourism if higher oil prices are sustained. But it’s still too early to draw conclusions about any potential impact on bookings over the longer term, given data lags and uncertainty around whether travellers may delay or reconsider travel decisions.
There is opportunity here too – New Zealand is a desirable, safe, welcoming destination. As of March 2026, appeal for New Zealand remains strong, with 61% of the adult online population rating a holiday to New Zealand as highly appealing, and 48% of active considerers across our key markets identifying New Zealand as their #1 destination.
We know people will still want to travel to New Zealand and our marketing activity to create and convert demand for travel to Aotearoa is in full swing and continuing as planned in Australia, Asia and North America.
Staying informed is more important than ever, and we’re committed to sharing the latest insights and guidance to help you navigate the months ahead.
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It’s excellent to see the number of international visitors who arrived in New Zealand over the past year up 7% (229k additional arrivals) on last year in the latest arrivals data for the year to February 2026. Holiday arrivals are leading the charge here, up 12% over the same period.
The number of visitors to New Zealand over the summer period (Dec/Jan/Feb) increased by 8.5% vs last summer. Overall, we are back to 92% of the 3.9 million visitors who visited in 2019.
408k international visitors arrived in the month of February, up 15% and 54k more visitors than last February. One key factor here was the Lunar New Year holiday period falling in February this year (and in January last year), driving a strong lift in the number of visitors from China in particular. More on the China market below.
These latest figures put us in a strong position for reaching our FY26 growth target of 3.7 million international visitors by the end of June 2026, and on track towards 3.9 million arrivals by the end of the 2026 calendar year. Join our Tourism New Zealand hui webinar on 1 July to hear about our strategy for the year ahead as we work hard to reach these targets.
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Offshore, Tourism New Zealand joined Minister Upston on her recent trip to the United States where she hosted a roundtable event with the North American incentive travel sector in New York, alongside Air New Zealand.
The event was an excellent opportunity to promote New Zealand as a world-class destination for corporate and incentive travel groups while also gaining valuable insight into the United States incentive travel landscape, client needs and future trends.
New Zealand is an exceptional destination for meetings and incentives. Our authenticity, nature, safety, and cultural depth align strongly with what corporate clients are seeking to deliver via their event programmes.
Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn if you’re keen to receive more frequent updates on our activity, industry news, and more. As always, please reach out if you have any questions.
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