21 August 2009

Record high for Australian visitors to NZ

WELLINGTON - Visitors from Australia to New Zealand reached a record high in July, delivering nearly 16,000 more travellers from across the Tasman than the same month last year.

The Australian market has grown by an additional 55,000 visitors in the last 12 months.

This year, Tourism New Zealand began marketing the ski season in February and followed up with television advertising promoting winter holidays.

The industry backed that campaign with competitive packages - the result a substantial 37 percent increase in holiday arrivals for July.

Overall arrivals were up 0.3 percent in July compared with the same month last year.

The statistics also showed some easing of the effect of Influenza A (H1N1) on Asian markets. Though arrivals are still down, the impact of swine flu on arrivals from Japan, China and Korea appears to be less severe than was evident in the June figures.

George Hickton, Tourism New Zealand chief executive said, "While it is still early days, our offshore markets are reporting that bookings from Asian markets are picking up from October onwards, particularly in Japan, and we hope that trend will continue as we head into summer.

"The softening in demand from some northern hemisphere markets has also freed up seats for travellers from smaller markets like Singapore, which is clearly showing that some pent up demand is now able to be satisfied," Hickton added.