More than 1 million Australians have visited New Zealand in the last 12 months - 65,000 more than in the year before - and Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) is keen for even more of Australia's 22 million residents to cross the Tasman Sea.
Breaking the 1 million mark was a significant achievement for New Zealand, Tourism New Zealand spokesmen told 33 Wanaka tourist operators at TNZ's Australian campaign update at Edgewater Resort yesterday.
New Zealand was seeing the results of the concerted publicity campaign but there was still an enormous opportunity for growth, TNZ's regional manager in Australia, Barry Eddington, said yesterday.
"Australia's outward-bound market is 6 million and we are getting 1 million."
TNZ's biggest concern is the "flat-lining" graphs showing there has been no growth in first-time visitors from Australia, although there has been 66% growth in repeat visitor numbers.
The 28% growth in Australian visitors in August had also been very encouraging.
Mr Eddington listed a wide range of factors that indicated the Australian market would continue to remain buoyant this spring and summer, including New Zealand's seven airports of entry, strong exchange rate, cheap air fares and the successful 100% Pure New Zealand campaign.
Tourism New Zealand estimates Australian arrivals will reach at least 1.3 million by 2015.
Tourism New Zealand's Australian campaign manager Tim Keeling, of Auckland, said he would work hard to encourage first-time visitors and protect growth in the number of repeat visitors.
He urged operators to use a range of tools, such as the www.newzealand.com website, which received a big jump in hits from Australian users this year compared to the previous two years.
Wanaka's U-Fly operator, Ruth Presland, told the Otago Daily Times before the seminar she had noticed many Australians visiting in the past year, but she was also getting good numbers of Irish and English clients.
Her business attracted licensed Australian pilots who were keen to obtain a New Zealand licence, so she could not describe them as just tourists.
However, she had also noticed a marked increase in "bucket list ladies" who would send their husbands to relax in Wanaka cafes while they tried their hand at flying a plane with an instructor, Miss Presland said.
