Tourism numbers up in October, record from Australia

Tourism numbers rose 6% in the year to October, with visitors from Australia, the United States, Britain and Japan driving growth.

Stats NZ today said overseas visitor arrivals were 3.45 million in the October 2025 year, an increase of 205,000 from the previous year.

Australian visitors increased by 153,000 to 1.5 million, and US visitor numbers rose by 20,000 to 382,000 for the year.

Visitors from Britain increased by 20,000 to 191,000, and there were 75,000 Japanese visitors, up by 10,000 from the year before.

In October this year, 262,700 foreign visitors arrived. That was 22,500, or 9%, more than in October last year.

The total number of overseas visitor arrivals in October was at 93% of the levels in October 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.

In October this year, 47% of all arrivals were from Australia, compared with 43% before the pandemic in October 2019.

Stats NZ said the 121,100 overseas visitor arrivals from Australia were an October record. 

“This coincided with the Australian school holiday period,” the agency said.

Compared with pre-Covid days, a higher proportion of foreign visitors were also from the US and India.

The share of visitors from Britain was stable, but only 7% of October visitors were from China, compared with 10% in the last October before the pandemic.

ASB economists today said the overseas visitor numbers were up, seasonally adjusted, for the fourth month in a row.

Annual visitor numbers were the highest since the pandemic, ASB said.

“About 75% of the gain in visitor numbers over the last 12 months has come via Australia.”

Those numbers were now just 3.5% below pre-pandemic peaks.

But Australians tended to stay for shorter stints and spend less than many other nationalities, the economists said.

“Visitor numbers look to have plateaued from the US,” the economists said.

“Although visitors have modestly picked up from Asia, Chinese visitor numbers remain marooned below 250,000 annually, more than 45% below pre-Covid peaks.”

The lower New Zealand dollar should at least encourage visitor spending, the economists said.

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