International travel continues its recovery but remains well down on pre-Covid visitors

Almost three million visitors came through New Zealand's borders last year. Photo / Alex Burton

Overseas visitor arrivals surged by more than a million last year as international tourism continues its slow recovery since borders reopened.

There were 2.96 million overseas visitor arrivals in the December 2023 year, Stats NZ said today, up by 1.52 million in the 2022 year. New Zealand started reopening its international border in March 2022.

Figures show there were 3.89 million visitor arrivals in the year to December 2019.

The biggest changes in annual arrivals in the year to December 2023 were from Australia (up 429,000 to 1.26 million), the United States (up 227,000 to 337,000), China (up 134,000 to 151,000), the United Kingdom (up 79,000 to 167,000) and India (up 64,000 to 84,000).

There were 418,900 overseas visitor arrivals for the month of December, increasing by 54,200 from December 2022.

China was the largest source of visitors with 14,800 arrivals, followed by the United States (up 14,600) and Korea (up 4300). Visitors from Australia were down 8200 and the United Kingdom fell by 6300.

The December 2023 number of overseas visitor arrivals is 79 per cent of the pre-Covid number of 528,200 in December 2019.

“Growth in overseas visitor numbers continued in 2023 following the progressive reopening of the border in March 2022,” population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said.

ASB economist Nathaniel Keall said the uptick in numbers was in line with their usual summer trend, but they were still in a hole.

“Numbers remain substantially below the sort of figures we used to see prior to the pandemic,” Keall said.

“[Australia] and the US continue to dominate overseas visitor arrivals. China remains the key laggard keeping the tourism recovery constrained.

“Chinese visitors are only running at a third of their pre-Covid trend, and it will be difficult for the tourism sector to recover to its pre-Covid size without more gains from that part of the world.”

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals for the year to December 2023 were 2.68 million, up by 1.36 million from the previous year.

The bulk of those were coming from Australia (up 474,000 to 1.03 million), then the United States (up 82,000 to 162,000), China (up 80,000 to 87,000) and Fiji (up 71,000 to 202,000).

There were 171,800 New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in the December 2023 month, up 44,500 from the same period last year.

The biggest changes came from Australia (up 23,400), China (up 5800) and Japan (up 2300).

The number of New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals is 88 per cent of the pre-Covid number of 194,500 in December 2019.