International Travel 12 June

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
Revision to international travel statistics

Monthly arrivals - overseas visitors

Overseas visitor arrivals were 288,500 in April 2026, an increase of 21,300 from April 2025. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• China (up 11,100)
• Australia (up 5,500)
• United States (up 3,100)
• Japan (up 1,500)
• Taiwan (up 1,300)
• India (up 1,200)
• Malaysia (up 1,000)
• United Kingdom (down 3,300).

The increase in visitor arrivals from China coincided with an Immigration New Zealand trial that allows eligible Chinese passport holders to travel to New Zealand from Australia without needing a New Zealand visitor visa. The 12-month trial started in November 2025. Visa free travel from Australia to New Zealand for Chinese visitors on the Immigration New Zealand website has more information on the trial.

There were record arrivals, for an April month, of overseas visitors from some countries including Australia (138,200), the United States (25,800), and India (8,000).

The total number of overseas visitor arrivals in April 2026 was 94 percent of the 307,400 in April 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 288,500 overseas visitor arrivals in April 2026:

• 49 percent were from Australia (compared with 43 percent in April 2019)
• 11 percent were from China (12 percent in April 2019)
• 9 percent were from the United States (8 percent in April 2019)
• 3 percent were from the United Kingdom (5 percent in April 2019)
• 3 percent were from India (2 percent in April 2019).

Monthly arrivals - New Zealand-resident travellers

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 247,400 in April 2026, an increase of 2,600 from April 2025. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• China (up 2,000)
• Philippines (up 1,200)
• Japan (up 1,100)
• Fiji (up 1,000)
• Viet Nam (up 1,000)
• United States (down 2,000)
• United Kingdom (down 1,100).

The 247,400 New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in April 2026 were a record for an April month, exceeding the previous record of 244,800 in April 2025.

There were record arrivals, for an April month, of New Zealand-resident travellers from some destinations including Fiji (15,900), China (15,700), and Japan (11,200).

The total number of New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in April 2026 was 102 percent of the 243,300 in April 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 247,400 New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in April 2026:

• 46 percent were from Australia (compared with 47 percent in April 2019)
• 7 percent were from Fiji (6 percent in April 2019)
• 6 percent were from China (5 percent in April 2019)
• 5 percent were from Japan (2 percent in April 2019)
• 4 percent were from the United States (7 percent in April 2019)
• 4 percent were from the Cook Islands (3 percent in April 2019)
• 4 percent were from India (2 percent in April 2019).

Annual arrivals

Overseas visitor arrivals were 3.65 million in the April 2026 year, an increase of 284,000 from the April 2025 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 133,000 to 1.57 million)
• China (up 60,000 to 308,000)
• Taiwan (up 14,000 to 64,000)
• United Kingdom (up 10,000 to 197,000).

The 1.57 million visitor arrivals from Australia were a record for any year from that country, exceeding the previous record of 1.56 million in the March 2026 year.

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 3.12 million in the April 2026 year, an increase of 100,000 from the April 2025 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 78,000 to 1.3 million)
• China (up 14,000 to 173,000)
• Japan (up 12,000 to 94,000)
• Philippines (up 10,000 to 63,000)
• United States (down 25,000 to 143,000).

The 3.12 million total New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in the April 2026 year were a record for an April year, exceeding the previous record of 3.06 million in 2019.

There were record arrivals, for an April year, of New Zealand-resident travellers from some destinations including Australia (1.3 million), China (173,000), India (117,000), and the Cook Islands (115,000).

The 117,000 arrivals of New Zealand-resident travellers from India in the April 2026 year were a record for any year from that destination.

Border crossings

There were 1.14 million border crossings in April 2026, made up of 543,900 arrivals and 591,900 departures. In April 2025 there were 1.1 million border crossings.

April 2026 border crossings were 96 percent of the 1.18 million in April 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Revision to international travel statistics

We have revised international travel series involving the January 2023 month, the March 2023 quarter, and annual periods from January 2023 to December 2023 (inclusive). This is because data for a cruise ship arriving in New Zealand in January 2023 was originally supplied to Stats NZ with an incorrect passenger list, which caused an overcount of 1,103 passenger arrivals in January 2023.

A small number of dynamic series, involving length of stay or absence, have had revisions from July 2022 to December 2023.

Digital arrival card

A digital arrival card (New Zealand Traveller Declaration - NZTD) became available to travellers entering 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 onwards therefore includes a growing proportion of digital responses. In April 2026, about 3 in 4 of all 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 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.

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

Travel, migration, and housing team
[email protected]
04 931 4600

ISSN 2624-2710

Next release

International travel: May 2026 will be released on 14 July 2026.