International tourism spend returns to pre-Covid levels
International tourist spending has returned to pre-Covid levels, while domestic tourism has dipped, according to the latest figures.
StatsNZ has released its annual tourism satellite figures, showing international tourism expenditure was up 60 percent to $16.9 billion, returning to levels similar to 2019 ($17.2b).
The largest increase on 2023 came from Asian visitors, a 168 percent increase year on year, followed by visitors from the Americas, up 59.1 percent, visitors from Europe up 25.9 percent and visitors from Oceania, an increase of 18.4 percent.
International student expenditure (studying less than 12 months, which meets StatsNZ's definition of a tourist) also leapt up on 2023 - by 76.2 percent or $1.6b, reaching $3.8b.
That figure includes course fees, living costs, and airfares.
Meanwhile, domestic tourism expenditure dropped by 2.5 percent to $27.5b, on the back of an 11.2 percent ($2.8b) increase the year before, and household tourism expenditure decreased by 5.8 percent to $1.3b.
Total tourism expenditure for the year was just over $44.4b, up 15 percent from the year before.
The number of tourism employees (159,030) and tourism business owners (23,697) both went up, by 13.3 percent and 15.1 percent respectively.
Tourism accounts for 6.4 percent of the workforce.
The government has focused on tourism growth as part of its economic strategy.
It committed $3 million to attracting tourists to the regions in the off-season while also hiking the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL), and making cuts to Department of Conservation and Tourism New Zealand's funding.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon launched a $500,000 short-haul tourism campaign, with the slogan "Everyone must go" which attracted opprobrium from some quarters for its "toilet queue tone" or resemblance to a clearance sale.
But some popular tourist areas are wary of the focus on numbers, with Queenstown District Council warning this week of plummeting tourism approval ratings and the prospect of protests and hostility without urgent intervention, as pressure grows on infrastructure, housing and the environment.
In January, Queenstown Mayor Glyn Lewers called on the government to step up its infrastructure spend following the Minister for Economic Development Nicola Willis' announcement the government was moving away from its predecessors policy of targeting high spending tourists in favour of sheer numbers.
"I would expect a very serious investment in actually accommodating those visitors because a small ratepayer base cannot sustainably keep supporting the tourism industry," he said.
