Chinese visitor numbers surge

Domestic passenger numbers arriving at Queenstown Airport rose sharply in September. Photo supplied.
Domestic passenger numbers arriving at Queenstown Airport rose sharply in September. Photo supplied.
Visitors from China to New Zealand moved ahead of visitors from both the United Kingdom and the United States last month, according to figures released yesterday by Auckland International Airport.

China was the second-largest inbound market during a 12-month period for the first time in the year ended September.

For the year ended September, Chinese visitor numbers were up nearly 35% to 39,339.

Visitors from China numbered more than 13,300 last month, up 74.2% compared with 7645 in September last year.

The next three markets showed some depressing numbers for New Zealand's tourism market. Visitors from the United Kingdom dropped nearly 70% in September to 7500 from 19,517 a year ago. US visitors dropped by 20.4% to 7212 and numbers from Japan dropped nearly 20% to 3740.

Numbers from Australia dropped 8.6% in September to 59,413 compared with September last year. Year-to-date figures showed Australian visitors falling 1.5% to 159,187 from 161,554 in the year ended September 2011.

The strength of the Australian dollar, which has remained around or above parity with the US currency, is encouraging Australians to visit the US and Europe while the exchange rate is favourable.

On an annual basis, visitor numbers from the UK dropped 44.2%, from the US dropped 13.4% and from Japan, rose 15.5%.

Craigs Investment Partners broker Chris Timms said that for Auckland Airport, it was important the company got people to spend more money in its flagship Auckland terminal.

The passing spend was an important revenue earner for the company.

"It's about keeping people in the airport, spending money.

"Whether that is on duty free, food or drink, the spend is important."

Auckland Airport had concentrated on building up its presence in the Asian markets and that was now showing through, Mr Timms said.

On Friday, Statistics New Zealand figures also showed a rise in visitor numbers from China.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said that the increase in Chinese visitors was "hugely significant" for the industry.

"In terms of the number of people operators are seeing, it is increasingly visitors from Asia, not Europe."

However, although the number of arrivals was high, Chinese stayed, on average, for significantly fewer days than visitors from the US and Europe, both of which remained priority markets for Tourism NZ.

Chinese holiday stay days were nearly 50% fewer than stay days for holiday arrivals from the US, he said.

The latest figures showed that total international passengers arriving at Queenstown Airport, partially owned by Auckland Airport, fell 5% in September, down to 19,000 from 20,000 in September last year.

Domestic numbers rose 27.1% to more than 76,000. On an annual basis, international passenger arrivals increased by 9.8% to 92,400 and total domestic passenger numbers increased by 26.4% to 246,569.

 

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