Travel stats show tourist arrivals up but still below pre-Covid rates

Overseas traveller arrival numbers for April were up, but still short of pre-Covid levels. Photo / Dean Purcell

Overseas visitor arrival numbers were up slightly in April compared to a year before but still short of pre-pandemic levels.

ASB economists said the annual tourism inflows were a modest increase but the recovery may be running out of steam.

Stats NZ today said 225,000 people arrived during the month, an increase of 3800 from April 2023.

That overall increase was despite an early Easter weekend cited as having an impact on the April arrival numbers.

The biggest year-on-year increase was in arrivals from China, up 10,400.

But visitor numbers from Australia were down by 6600 for April.

Stats NZ said overall visitor arrivals for the month were 73 per cent of the pre-Covid number of 307,400 in April 2019.

Despite the dip in visitors from across the Tasman, Australia still provided 45 per cent of all visitors, well ahead of China at 10 per cent and the US at 9 per cent.

Visitor numbers from the UK were down by 1300 compared to April 2023.

But New Zealand attracted more visitors from Thailand, up by 1900 compared to April 2023, and from Taiwan, up by 1100.

The agency said the timing of the Easter weekend this year contributed to fewer overseas visitor arrivals in the first week of April 2024 compared with the same week in 2023.

Overall numbers up for the year

For the year to April 30, overseas visitor arrivals were 3.19 million.

That was an increase of 821,000 from the April 2023 year.

Across the year, the biggest increases were in arrivals from China, the US, Australia, India, Korea and Japan.

NZ resident travellers

Total border crossings in April 2024 were 87 per cent of the 1.18 million in April 2019.

New Zealand residents now seemed to be returning from overseas trips at levels comparable to 2019.

“New Zealand resident traveller arrivals were 242,100 in the April 2024 month, increasing by 31,700 from the April 2023 month,” Stats NZ said.

Tourism ‘cap’ prognosis

ASB economists said visitor numbers were down a seasonally-adjusted 9.4 per cent in April, after a 9.7 per cent jump in March.

“Annual visitor numbers ... edged higher to a new post-Covid high, but the pace of increase is slowing.”

The bank economists said visitors from Asia were driving the year-on-year growth but Chinese tourist numbers were still well below pre-pandemic peaks.

Although the World Bank today released a more optimistic global growth outlook than earlier this year, the ASB economists were not so buoyant today.

“It is still early days, but the concern is that challenging economic times across the globe could cap tourism numbers to New Zealand and reduce a key leg of economic support.”

Stats NZ also released new migration data today, which showed New Zealand citizens leaving the country at record levels.