The New Zealand tourism industry is suffering from the downward trend in travel, with a decline in long-haul visitors this January.
Statistics New Zealand revealed a 3.7 percent loss in visitors, compared to January 2008. This is indicative of a loss of 10,000 visitors, following record visits in December 2008.
Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive George Hickton was not surprised by these figures.
“The industry has been reporting for some time that there are fewer numbers of visitors booking from our key long haul markets such as the United Kingdom (-10.4%) and the US (-19.5%).”
Hickton continued, “But I am delighted to see that our summer campaign in Australia has helped fill the country during the industry’s peak season, with almost 2,000 extra Australians this January and a 4.5% increase in holiday arrivals.”
The annual Chinese New Year did buoy numbers slightly, with approximately 4,000 extra visitors choosing to holiday during their festivities. China is the fourth largest market for New Zealand tourism.
Campaigns in key summer markets will be necessary for growth, according to Hickton.
“We’ve run a summer campaign in Australia for the first time in years, we’ve had a second wave of campaigns in the UK and China and we are launching a new campaign in the US through Discovery Channel,” he explained.
A slow winter is expected, Hickton admitted, but noted that Tourism New Zealand plans to focus on numbers for the next peak season.
The expected overall decline in visitors between January and March could be held to only 5 – 10 percent, due to the small rise in Australian visitors. However, long-haul markets are still expected to fall between 10 and 15 percent in that period.
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