Australia helps boost New Zealand Visitor Arrivals

Australia has again shown its importance to New Zealand’s tourism industry, with Australian arrivals helping to hold up declines from other markets.

Statistics from Tourism New Zealand show visitor arrivals dropped 4.2% in November 2008 compared with the same month last year.

Arrivals from Australia rose 1.8% in November, offsetting sharp declines in arrivals from most major Asian markets.

Overall, arrivals from Europe held reasonably steady, down 2.4%.

"The arrivals figures for November are very much in line with expectations and again show the importance of the Australian market in the current economic climate," said Tourism New Zealand chief executive, George Hickton.

Tourism New Zealand is planning a burst of marketing activity in the New Year, with campaigns running in the US, China and the UK.

"With around 900 million people still travelling worldwide, there are enough people to fill New Zealand many times over. We just need to make sure we keep building our share of those travellers by keeping New Zealand’s profile up so that people wanting a holiday will think of New Zealand," Mr Hickton added.

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