Transtasman bubble: More Australians coming to New Zealand

Emotional scenes as passengers arriving from Sydney are greeted by family at Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Figures show New Zealand is winning out of quarantine-free transtasman travel.

More people have entered New Zealand than have left since the opening of the transtasman bubble, says Tourism Industry Aotearoa.

Since the first flight from Australia to New Zealand took off from Sydney to Auckland on April 19, the two-way Tasman travel arrangement has been in New Zealand's favour on a ratio of three to two, according to figures collated by TIA.

However, total numbers are just a fraction of pre-Covid travel and many of those coming from Australia will be expat Kiwis visiting relatives and friends, rather than Australian leisure tourists who spend to support the visitor industry here.

Daily movements across the border in data tracked by Stats NZ shows that in the first nine days of the bubble, New Zealand welcomed more than 30,000 international arrivals, with just over 20,000 people departing over the same period.

Over the same nine days in 2019, there were 177,000 arrivals into New Zealand and 191,000 departures

TIA says most of the arrivals and departures during the past nine days travelled between New Zealand and Australia quarantine-free.

TIA chief executive Chris Roberts says the highest number of arrivals were on the first two days, as friends and family were reunited.

"It was incredibly moving to see friends and family reconnecting those first momentous days of the borders reopening," said Roberts.

"Hopefully, the early success of the bubble will give people confidence to travel for leisure. Many of our Australian neighbours will be needing an adventure by now, and it's great to see some are already heading over to enjoy themselves."

Airlines report the same traffic flow trends and have withdrawn some capacity put on the Tasman after demand failed to meet expectations. Qantas says it will restore some of this later next month.