Dairy has been dislodged from the throne of New Zealand's top foreign exchange earner by the tourism industry.
Statistics New Zealand has released its Tourism Satellite Account, which analyses the contribution of the tourism industry to GDP and foreign exchange earnings.
It shows a contribution of $7.4 billion in earningsfrom overseas visitors, more than the $5.9 billion earned in exports by the dairy industry and the $4.4 billion from meat.
Although tourism has long been expected to overhaul dairy as New Zealand's biggest earner, yesterday's announcement was the first confirmation of the change.
Government statistician Brian Pink said tourism - unlike "conventional" industries such as agriculture or manufacturing, which could be classified according to goods and services produced - was defined by "the characteristics of the customer demanding tourism products".
This meant tourism "products" could cut across standard industry definitions, and alternative measurement systems were needed.
George Hickton, the chief executive of Tourism New Zealand, said although the statistics showed last year was a record year, all signs pointed to this year being even better. Visitor arrivals for the year to the end of May were 8 per cent higher than for the previous 12 months.
The "100% Pure New Zealand" campaign had been gaining international recognition overseas, and the industry's target market was responding to the "positioning of this country as a high-quality international destination".
More air capacity and The Lord of the Rings publicity had helped to keep New Zealand as a "hot destination".
Hickton said it was pleasing that tourism was also playing an important role in regional New Zealand, as visitors ventured off many of the main tourist routes.
