NZ tourism weathers effects of Sept 11

The effects of the September 11 terror attacks continue to ripple around the world but Tourism New Zealand says it has weathered them comparatively well.

Initial forecasts of a 10 per cent drop in international visitor arrivals turned out to be 4 per cent on average from October to December.

And despite an immediate slump, overall arrivals for last year were up 6.9 per cent on the previous year, the organisation said.

"On the world stage, this sort of growth put New Zealand in a league of its own."

Australia recorded a 7 per cent drop in visitor arrivals last year and Britain logged a 2.6 per cent decrease.

June visitor arrivals in New Zealand indicated an overall growth of 5 per cent for the first half of 2002 and foreign exchange earnings for the year to March were up 12 per cent to $5.54 billion.

The New Zealand tourism industry was recovering well from the effects of terror, war and economic uncertainty, it said.

The organisation expects visitor arrivals to increase by 7.9 per cent for the year to June 2003 - an increase of 154,000 visitors, bringing the predicted total to 2.11 million.

"So we look forward to welcoming two million visitors for the first time and banking over $6 billion in foreign exchange earnings."

- NZPA

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