International travel

International travel covers the number and characteristics of overseas visitors and New Zealand resident travellers (short-term movements) entering or leaving New Zealand.

Key facts

Monthly arrivals - overseas visitors
Monthly arrivals - New Zealand-resident travellers
Annual arrivals
Border crossings
Resumption of seasonally adjusted and trend series

Monthly arrivals - overseas visitors

Overseas visitor arrivals were 303,400 in the November 2023 month, increasing by 70,700 from the November 2022 month. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• China (up 17,100)
• United States (up 12,600)
• Korea (up 4,900)
• Japan (up 3,100)
• India (up 3,100).

The November 2023 number of overseas visitor arrivals is 82 percent of the pre-COVID-19 number of 372,100 in November 2019.

China was the second largest source of overseas visitor arrivals (after Australia) pre-pandemic. Despite having the largest year-on-year increase of any country in November 2023, overseas visitor arrivals from China in November 2023 were 52 percent of the November 2019 level.

Of the 303,400 overseas visitor arrivals in November 2023:

• 38 percent were from Australia (compared with 36 percent in November 2019)
• 13 percent were from the United States (11 percent in November 2019)
• 7 percent were from China (11 percent in November 2019)
• 6 percent were from the United Kingdom (6 percent in November 2019)
• 3 percent were from India (2 percent in November 2019)
• 3 percent were from Germany (3 percent in November 2019)
• 3 percent were from Korea (3 percent in November 2019).

Monthly arrivals - New Zealand-resident travellers

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 226,800 in the November 2023 month, increasing by 49,800 from the November 2022 month. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 15,400)
• China (up 7,400)
• Japan (up 3,600)
• France (up 2,500).

The November 2023 number of New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals is 97 percent of the pre-COVID-19 number of 233,700 in November 2019.

Of the 226,800 New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in November 2023:

• 46 percent were from Australia (compared with 48 percent in November 2019)
• 7 percent were from Fiji (5 percent in November 2019)
• 6 percent were from the United States (6 percent in November 2019)
• 4 percent were from China (4 percent in November 2019)
• 4 percent were from Cook Islands (4 percent in November 2019)
• 3 percent were from India (3 percent in November 2019)
• 3 percent were from the United Kingdom (3 percent in November 2019).

Annual arrivals

Overseas visitor arrivals were 2.90 million in the November 2023 year, increasing by 1.83 million from the November 2022 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 605,000 to 1.27 million)
• United States (up 249,000 to 323,000)
• China (up 124,000 to 136,000)
• United Kingdom (up 121,000 to 173,000)
• India (up 69,000 to 83,000).

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 2.64 million in the November 2023 year, increasing by 1.43 million from the November 2022 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 504,000 to 1.00 million)
• United States (up 88,000 to 161,000)
• Fiji (up 79,000 to 201,000)
• China (up 76,000 to 82,000)
• India (up 53,000 to 98,000).

Border crossings

There were 1.05 million border crossings in November 2023, made up of 543,800 arrivals and 503,200 departures. In October 2023 there were 1.02 million border crossings.

November 2023 border crossings are 88 percent of the 1.19 million in November 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Resumption of seasonally adjusted and trend series

With the release of August 2023 data in October 2023 we resumed the publication of seasonally adjusted and trend series for international travel.

Methodology for bridging seasonally adjusted international travel and migration series impacted by COVID-19 has more information.

Digital arrival card

A digital arrival card (New Zealand Traveller Declaration - NZTD) is available to travellers who have entered New Zealand from mid-July 2023, alongside the existing paper arrival card. Christchurch and Wellington airports were the first to use the NZTD, followed by Queenstown airport in late July 2023, and Auckland airport in late August 2023.

Data from July 2023 therefore includes a growing proportion of digital responses, although paper responses are still the majority. In November 2023, 1 in 5 traveller arrivals completed the digital NZTD.

The implementation of the NZTD has no impact on the range of statistical information available to international travel and migration customers.

Early and provisional international travel data

Each week, Stats NZ releases early and provisional international travel statistics - International travel (provisional) - to facilitate analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on New Zealand's inbound and outbound tourism sectors.

This includes:

• weekly travel data for short-term overseas visitor and New Zealand-resident arrivals
• arrivals and departures data based solely on border crossings into and out of New Zealand
• stock estimates of visitors in New Zealand and New Zealand residents travelling overseas, based on arrivals and departures.

COVID-19 data portal has daily updates on provisional daily border-crossing data.

More data

Use Infoshare to access time-series data for international travel and migration:

Subject category: Tourism
Group: International travel and migration - ITM

Definitions and metadata

International travel - DataInfo+ gives general methodology used to produce international travel and migration statistics.

International travel concepts - DataInfo+ gives definitions of terms used in this release.

Subnational short-term NZ-resident arrivals - DataInfo+ gives methodology for determining the New Zealand-location information in short-term New Zealand-resident arrival records.

Technical enquiries

Bridget Snodgrass
03 964 8317
[email protected]

ISSN 2624-2710

Next release

International travel: December 2023 will be released on 15 February 2024.