Australian visitor arrivals reach new heights

Visitor arrivals from Australia exceeded 1.5 million for the year ended September 2019, Stats NZ said today.

This is an increase of 55,700 (3.8 percent) compared with the September 2018 year.

"The strong growth in the Australian market was dampened by a decline in visitor arrivals from the Asian region, in particular China and Malaysia," population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said.

The lift in visitor arrivals from Australia for the year ended September 2019 coincided with both an increase in the number of flights between Australia and New Zealand and a marketing campaign launched by Tourism New Zealand late last year targeting the Australian market.

Consistent with previous years, 36 percent of visitor arrivals from Australia in the year ended September 2019 were from New South Wales, followed by Queensland (26 percent) and Victoria (25 percent). The remaining states/territories made up 13 percent of all visitor arrivals from Australia.

More than three-quarters of the visitor arrivals from Australia were here to take a holiday or to spend time with family and friends. About one-quarter of all visitor arrivals from Australia were New Zealand citizens.

Annual visitor arrivals from Australia increased across all age groups in the September 2019 year compared with the September 2018 year. The largest increases were in the 65+, 25-34, and 55-64 year age groups. This represents an increase of more than 9,000 visitor arrivals from each age group.