Our take on the latest Tourism data (Tue 12 Jul 2022)
Around 73,000 foreign tourist arrivals in May 2022
Just over 110,000 NZ tourist departures overseas
Aus, UK tourist arrivals above 50% of usual monthly level
The key numbers...
- Travel activity is rebounding, with foreign tourist arrivals now back to a third of pre-pandemic (May 2019 month) levels. May 2022 saw 72,755 inbound arrivals, compared to over 219,000 in May 2019.
- Departures also rose further to 110,683 in May 2022, sitting at 40% of pre-pandemic levels.
- Australian arrivals totalled nearly 47,000 in May, 52% of pre-pandemic levels and up from 32% in April.
- May saw a substantial revival of travel from other parts of the world too. UK tourist arrivals were back to 53% of pre-pandemic levels, with Canadian arrivals at 41% and Singaporean arrivals at 37%.
Departures remain higher than arrivals
Monthly tourism passenger counts
...and our reaction
- Tourism activity continues to recover, although departures from New Zealand remain greater than inbound arrivals.
- The revival in some key markets is a reassuring sign, but also potentially providing misleading signals of the swiftness of the tourism restart.
- The middle of the year is usually the lowest point for tourist arrivals, with May 2019 (pre-pandemic) representing around half the level of travellers into New Zealand over the busy summer months. Having a third of the usual low of the travel season highlights how much runway we still have to go.
- The real challenge for New Zealand tourism will come in summer, with a need to attract large numbers of travellers to get towards pre-pandemic levels, at a time when global inflation and recession fears will remain high.
- Migration concerns remain too, with a higher net outflow of talent recorded in May 2022 and confirmed by higher departure passenger movements than arrival movements.
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