January arrivals a great start for 2015

January arrivals a great start for 2015

New Zealand's appeal as a holiday destination continued to drive annual visitor growth during January this year - with total holiday arrivals up 5.6 per cent for the year ended January 2015.

The data, released today by Statistics New Zealand, reveals that for the 12 months to the end of January total arrivals have grown by 4.3 per cent to over 2.86 million.

Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) Chief Executive Kevin Bowler says “this is a great start to 2015 and has been further supported by an increase in visitors’ spend, up 13 per cent for the year ended December 2014.

“We have also seen stay days increase 7.5 per cent for the year ending January, with holiday stay days up 8.7 for the same period which are great indications that we are attracting more high value visitors to the country.”

Our largest source market, Australia, has seen steady growth over the summer months with holiday arrivals up 2.4 per cent for the year ended January.

China has seen a dip in arrivals for the month of January which can be attributed to the timing of Chinese New Year, which fell in February this year. The market remains in growth for the year with holiday arrivals up 6.4 per cent.

"We are continuing to see a significant shift in the China market, with holiday stay days having increased by 12.9 per cent for the same period and holiday spend up 50 per cent for the year ended December 2014," says Kevin.

“These indicate a shift towards higher quality and higher value Chinese travellers and I am confident we will see a spike in arrivals from this market in February,” says Kevin.

Holiday results are strong out of the Asian markets of Singapore (up 5.0 per cent), Japan (up 10.3 per cent), Korea (up 12.4 per cent).

Tourism New Zealand’s priority emerging markets are performing well with total arrivals from India up an impressive 21.7 per cent, Brazil up 14.4 per cent and Indonesia up 12.8 per cent year-on-year.

Overall growth has been supported by steady holiday arrivals from Western markets with holiday arrivals from the US, UK and Germany up 14.2 per cent, 1.7 per cent and 16.0 per cent respectively.

ENDS

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