Record UK visitor growth to New Zealand
New Zealand has experienced its “best ever summer season”, with the number of holiday-makers from the UK up 64% on last year.
Figures released yesterday by Tourism New Zealand show that there was a 64% rise in the number of holiday-makers from the UK, compared with a 14.7 per cent increase over the same period last year. Overall, UK visitor arrival statistics for the month ended March 2002 were up 45.3 per cent on last year to 28,872.
Total international visitor figures for March were also up on the previous year. There were 202,504 international visitors to New Zealand during March 2002, an increase of 14.5 per cent on the same month last year. A total of 1,165,709 arrivals for the six months ended March 2002.
A spokesperson for Tourism New Zealand said: “This makes this the best ever season for tourism to New Zealand”.
Commenting on the figures, Barry Eddington (pictured), Tourism New Zealand’s regional manager for UK/Europe, said: “This is tremendous news for New Zealand, and is particularly gratifying for the UK market. We knew the UK market was resilient – people were understandably nervous about travelling directly after the September 11th attacks, and these figures demonstrate that they simply delayed their booking rather than cancelling their holiday to New Zealand.
“I am especially grateful for the support the UK travel industry has given to our 100% Pure New Zealand marketing campaign over the past few months, which has certainly contributed to these exceptional figures. The success of the film The Lord of the Rings has also been magnificent for the profile of New Zealand, and with the America’s Cup regatta starting in Auckland in October, we expect next summer’s results to be even better. UK visitors are reporting increasingly high satisfaction levels for their New Zealand holiday experience – which has led to growing levels of repeat business.”
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