China was in 2011 the fourth largest inbound market for New Zealand. Latest quarterly figures running from April to June 2012 shows that China PRC is now the second largest market taking over the USA…
WELLINGTON- China is on the verge of becoming New Zealand’s second-largest tourist market in terms of visitor spending, according to New Zealand government figures out last Tuesday.
While total spending by international visitors was flat at 5.6 billion NZ dollars (4.59 billion U.S. dollars) in the year ending June, Chinese visitors spent 27 percent more than the year to June 2011, according to the International Visitor Survey from the Minister of Business, Innovation and Employment. The figures showed more people coming to New Zealand — up 5 percent to 2.6 million in the 12 months ending June — but spending less on average.
The ministry’s tourism research and evaluation manager, Peter Ellis, said China was the “standout performer” over that period. “In the past 12 months spending across traditional markets like the United Kingdom and United States has been flat. If it weren’t for the Rugby World Cup in this period we would have seen a decrease in total visitor spend of well over 200 million NZ dollars,” he said, referring to the international rugby tournament hosted by New Zealand in September and October last year.
“However, expenditure from Chinese visitors increased by 27 percent to 522 million NZ dollars. China is now our third-largest tourist market and just shy of the 568 million NZ dollars spent by visitors from the UK,” Ellis said in a statement. “China has already overtaken markets like Germany and the United States. It is now just a matter of time before China becomes our second-largest visitor market, behind Australia.”
For the quarter April to June, statistics from Tourism New Zealand related to its International Visitor Survey (based on interviews of 5,200 tourists a year departing from New Zealand airports) show that travellers from China PRC grew by 59.5 % while other large markets such as the USA and the UK show a decline. China consequently overtook on a quarterly basis the second position with 40,815 arrivals compared to 32,080 from the USA.
Table: Top short term overseas arrivals by country of residence to New Zealand
|
Overseas Arrivals by country of residence |
June month |
June quarter |
Year ended June |
Percentage change from 2011 |
|||||
|
2011 |
2012 |
2011 |
2012 |
2011 |
2012 |
Month |
Quarter |
Year |
|
|
Australia |
64 820 |
80 672 |
230 540 |
237 520 |
1 111 192 |
1 175 296 |
24,5 |
3,0 |
5,8 |
|
UK |
6 080 |
5 728 |
30 888 |
23 184 |
220 043 |
214 448 |
-5,8 |
-24,9 |
-2,5 |
|
USA |
10 220 |
10 064 |
33 320 |
32 080 |
188 150 |
182 816 |
-1,5 |
-3,7 |
-2,8 |
|
China PRC |
6 740 |
9 696 |
25 596 |
40 816 |
131 648 |
175 488 |
43,9 |
59,5 |
33,3 |
|
Japan |
4 100 |
3 696 |
9 084 |
11 104 |
78 559 |
67 072 |
-9,9 |
22,2 |
-14,6 |
|
Germany |
1 720 |
1 712 |
7 076 |
6 576 |
65 237 |
62 992 |
-0,5 |
-7,1 |
-3,4 |
|
South Korea |
2 780 |
2 896 |
8 280 |
9 568 |
59 723 |
53 840 |
4,2 |
15,6 |
-9,9 |
|
Canada |
1 340 |
1 536 |
6 340 |
6 480 |
48 409 |
49 296 |
14,6 |
2,2 |
1,8 |
|
Singapore |
3 060 |
2 736 |
8 140 |
7 408 |
32 281 |
38 736 |
-10,6 |
-9,0 |
20,0 |
|
France |
1 080 |
1 200 |
3 532 |
3 840 |
24 355 |
37 136 |
11,1 |
8,7 |
52,5 |
|
TOTAL |
131 269 |
151 074 |
469 787 |
487 583 |
2 501 303 |
2 635 726 |
15,1 |
3,8 |
5,4 |
(Sources: Xinhua/Tourism New Zealand)
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
