Enterprise Dunedin destination manager Teresa Fogarty said there had been a recent boom, particularly in the number of Chinese tourists visiting the city on bus tours.
"Nationally, the Chinese market hasn’t grown as quickly post-Covid as some of the other markets.
"And when the Chinese market did start to come back, they weren’t here for long and just wanted to see the must-do’s on their bucket list — like Milford Sound, Rotorua, maybe Queenstown.
"But we’re starting to see them come back into Dunedin quite strongly now.
"People are spending a bit more time here and that connectivity with the city is back on."
She said Dunedin was also seeing a lot more connectivity with other countries in Southeast Asia and India as well.
Tourism New Zealand had prioritised attracting people from those countries, which it had not done previously, she said.
"That’s something that Enterprise Dunedin is backing up ... and I think what we’re seeing is that coming through.
"Our tourism operators have definitely repeated that back to us — that they’ve been busy the last little bit."
She said the country’s tourism sector was now back to about 88% of pre-Covid levels, and Dunedin was more than 75% of the way back.
Ms Fogarty said it was more good news for hospitality, accommodation, retail and tourist operators in Dunedin.
"When we see people coming through, that’s all things that add into the livability of our city and adds into the people who will come back.
"It adds into the enjoyment that our residents have, as they see places buzzing and people around.
"It’s keeping us [economically] buoyant.
Larnach Castle general manager Adrian Clifton said visitor numbers had been rising across all markets, including Asia, in recent months, and he was looking forward to a "strong summer season".
"This growth is encouraging, not only for Larnach Castle, but also for Dunedin as a destination," he said.
A Royal Albatross Centre spokeswoman said, anecdotally, there had been many more tourists from Asia visiting the centre over the past few months.
"I’ve been noticing quite a lot of them. We’ve had large groups of 20-25 people coming through and we do have a few bookings that are coming from Taiwan.
"It’s quite busy for us at the moment, and it looks like it might be going to be even more so in the future, which is good."
