A huge increase in international visitor arrivals to New Zealand from both the West and the East has seen the biggest February influx, with 281,233 arrivals resulting in 8.5% growth for the month.
Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said on Friday the growth could only be partly attributed to Chinese New Year - Chinese visitors increased 106.4% in February - because growth could be seen across all key markets.
''What's really positive is the growth we are seeing out of the long-haul markets, notably this month's holiday arrivals from the United States, up 21%, and Canada, up 4.2%, United Kingdom, up 2%, and Germany, up 0.6%,'' Mr Bowler said.
''These markets have been challenging for some time and it is fantastic seeing such strong results.''
Following the release of the firsti movie and focused marketing efforts with Tourism NZ's ''100% Middle-earth, 100% Pure New Zealand'' campaign, the growth showed the increased preference to travel to New Zealand, he said.
The increase in interest was seen in record traffic to the consumer site newzealand.com. One million visits made it the biggest February month, up 37.3% on February 2012.
Growth from North America was also assisted by increased capacity on the US and Canada routes by Air New Zealand over the summer season.
The increase from Germany continues a positive trend with arrivals being up an average of 3% over the past six months compared with last year.
''While there are still challenges in the long-haul markets, with annual arrivals either flat or down year-on-year, the growth in February is really positive.''
The Asian markets also showed positive growth, with Singapore up 32.2%, Thailand up 16.7%, Hong Kong up 144.8% and China up 106.4% for the month.
''The arrivals from China during the peak Chinese New Year travel period included some of the first visitors on the new Premier Kiwi Partnership itineraries,'' Mr Bowler said.
''These higher-quality arrivals will have stayed longer, done more and ultimately had a better experience to share with others on their return.''
The growth across all markets is seen despite 2012 being a leap year, meaning there was one day fewer. This means arrivals were about 3.6% less than they would be if comparing months with an equal number of days.
''When we factor this in, the result is actually more positive, with total annual arrivals up 1.8% on 2011,'' Mr Bowler said.
