Continued growth in visitor numbers from Asia and North America contributed to a record $1.7 billion increase in international tourist spending in the past year, Statistics New Zealand said today. 

Spending by international tourists in New Zealand in the year ended March 2015 climbed to $11.8 billion – an increase of 17.1 percent – according to the Tourism Satellite Account: 2015. This follows a 4.5 percent increase in the previous year. The number of short-term international visitors increased 7.1 percent over the same period.

“Increasing visitor numbers from China and the United States drove the increase in spending by international tourists,” national accounts senior manager Gary Dunnet said. “This is the highest level of international tourism expenditure since these statistics began in 1999.”

Total tourism expenditure increased 10.3 percent to $29.8 billion, following a 4.0 percent increase in the previous year.

Key results for the year ended March 2015 are: 

International tourism expenditure contributed $11.8 billion (17.4 percent) to New Zealand’s total exports.

Domestic tourism expenditure increased 6.3 percent ($1.1 billion) to $18.1 billion.

Tourism generated a direct contribution to GDP of $10.6 billion – 4.9 percent of GDP.

The indirect value added of industries supporting tourism generated an additional $7.9 billion for tourism – 3.6 percent of GDP.

168,012 people were directly employed in tourism – 6.9 percent of the total number of people employed in New Zealand.

Tourists generated $2.5 billion in GST revenue.

Tourism Satellite Account: 2015 incorporates revisions made to the tourism expenditure series. These revisions have caused changes to the value of tourism expenditure in the New Zealand economy, and affected the official TSA time series back to 1999. There are also changes to the reporting measure of tourism employment series, which reflect the introduction of a new data source. 

Read Tourism Satellite Account: 2015 online, or order a hard copy from our Information Centre.