Short-term visitors lift despite Asia tourist dip

By SIMON HENDERY

The number of short-term visitors arriving in the country increased 3.9 per cent over the past year but a slump in arrivals from Asia continues to dog the tourism industry.

In the 12 months to the end of October, 2.062 million visitors and tourists arrived in New Zealand, up from 1.985 million during the same period a year earlier, Statistics New Zealand says.

Waning fears of terrorism attacks and strong international publicity for New Zealand helped boost the number of travellers arriving from our three largest tourist markets.

Arrivals from Australia rose 9.1 per cent over the year to 677,000. UK arrivals were up 10.2 per cent to 256,000 and US arrivals were up 5.5 per cent to 208,000.

But the fallout from the Sars outbreak is continuing to affect Asian arrivals.

Arrivals from Asia were down 5.6 per cent for the October year to 488,000. Asian arrivals for October were down 7.8 per cent on the same month last year.

Japan, our fourth-largest market, reported a 3.1 per cent drop for the past 12 months, to 154,000.

The number of Japanese visitors arriving in the country during October was down 20 per cent on the same month last year.

In its latest industry newsletter, Regional Rap, Tourism New Zealand said it expected arrivals from Japan to be down between 5 and 15 per cent during the last quarter of this calendar year due to a slower than expected post-Sars recovery.

Other major markets were expected to grow during the last quarter of the year, except for North America, where numbers were predicted to be down between 1 and 5 per cent as group tours and the cruise ship market softened.