Aussies offset Asian visitor fall

Photo / Alan Gibson

Swine flu's arrival in New Zealand drove Asian visitor numbers to new lows last month but it wasn't enough to put a dent in the total arrivals.

Statistics New Zealand figures show visitors numbers were up 1 per cent in May bolstered by a record number of Australians crossing the ditch.

But visitors from China, New Zealand's fourth-largest source market, fell by a third and Japan, New Zealand's fifth-largest market, fell by more than 40 per cent compared with May last year.

Korean numbers also plummeted by more than 50 per cent.

News of swine flu reaching New Zealand emerged on April 27 after a school group returned from a trip to Mexico.

Paul Yeo, chief executive of the Inbound Tour Operators Council, said Japanese and Chinese tourists were highly reactive to health scares. "When swine flu first showed up in New Zealand it was cancellations with [Japanese and Chinese] school groups."

Yeo said the May figures would have picked up the first few groups but cancellations stretched into June, July and August. "Really the next two to three months are going to see the impact of those groups."

One positive was that June, July and August tended to be the quieter time for international visitors so a 50 per cent drop on a lower number was less of a worry. "While not nice it's not as bad as it could be."

Yeo said the move by health authorities from the containment phase into management was also more positive as healthy people who travelled to New Zealand did not have to fear being quarantined when they arrived home.

He hoped Asian visitors would return to normal in time for New Zealand's summer season and said some school groups were considering rebooking for September or October.

"I am hoping as we come into spring and summer the Asian visitors will come right again."

Meanwhile Australian visitors hit a record high with 1,001,800 coming to New Zealand in the year to May 31 - the highest number to visit in one year and the first time it has surpassed the millionth person mark.

Yeo said the higher numbers of Australians were important to keep the turnstiles moving but in many ways they were not as profitable as visitors from countries like Japan.

"Australians tend to stay shorter periods and spend less."

Tourism Industry Association chief executive Tim Cossar said New Zealand needed every Australian it could get at the moment but like Yeo said the downside was that they didn't stay as long or spend as much. "That's why our aim is to get them to come back more often and visit other regions."

Australia was proving to be a strong market when both the long-haul British and US markets were taking a hit and were down close to 10 per cent over the year while Asian market were under pressure.

Cossar said the underlying economic conditions were affecting Asian markets. Visitors numbers from China have dropped in nine of the past 12 months and since December 2004 visitors from Japan have been down every month bar three.

"Swine flu definitely hasn't helped." Cossar expected the flu to affect Asian visitor arrivals over winter and said past experience with Sars and bird flu showed they could bounce back quickly.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton said the 16 per cent rise in Australian visitors during May had been a key driver in getting over the millionth-person mark.

He put some of the growth down to the campaign Tourism NZ ran with Air New Zealand in April after the Government allocated an extra $2.5 million to Australian marketing.

But he said a favourable exchange rate, good airline capacity and competitive airfares had also helped.