Tourism data

Lunar New Year boosts January arrivals

13 Mar 2025

Our take on the latest Tourism data (Thu 13 Mar 2025)

Tourism arrivals up 11%pa in three months to January 2025

Tourism arrivals at 93% of pre-pandemic levels in January

Kiwi tourist departures at 113% of pre-pandemic levels in January

Tourism arrivals rose a strong 13%pa in January, and are up 11% over the three months to January, reflecting a strong summer so far as well as a shift of Lunar New Year to January. In total, 370,238 tourists arrived in January 2025, amounting to 93% of January 2019 (pre-pandemic levels), up from 82% in January 2024.
The economic benefit of our tourism recovery has been somewhat undermined by a strong recovery in outbound tourism, with departures of New Zealand tourists reaching 113% of pre-pandemic levels. New Zealand tourist departures rose 8.4%pa in January.
Arrivals from Australia continue to drive overall growth, with a 20%pa increase in Australian arrivals in January accounting for more than half of the overall increase. China made the second largest contribution to growth, with a 74%pa increase in January. The United States recently overtook China as our second-largest tourism market, but recorded negligible growth of 2.5%pa in January.
Christchurch Airport recorded the strongest increase in arrivals in January, up 33%pa. However, Queenstown remains the only airport ahead of pre-pandemic levels, with Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch arrivals all still less than 90% of pre-pandemic levels.

Monthly tourism arrivals, % of pre-pandemic (2019) levels

January followed December as another strong month for tourist arrivals. With arrivals at 93% of pre-pandemic levels, January was our strongest month for recovery since borders reopened. Lunar New Year was in January in 2025, rather than February in 2024, which is likely to have boosted arrivals, and could flow through to lower arrivals in February. Arrivals from China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia were all substantially higher in January 2025, compared to January 2024.
The United States remains our second-largest tourism market, and has been a convenient support while Chinese arrivals have lagged. A weakening New Zealand dollar over the past few months will have improved our attractiveness to Americans, but the rising threat of a US recession could dampen their long-haul travel appetite.
It is notable that New Zealand tourist departures continue to grow so strongly, up 8.7% in the year to January 2025, despite weakness in the domestic market. Marketview consumer spending rose just 0.2% in the year to December 2024 and domestic tourism spending rose a modest 4.7%. Many households are making cutbacks in their day-to-day spending, but at the same time outbound tourism is growing faster than domestic. With lower interest rates starting to flow through to household budgets in 2025, this could stimulate more outbound tourism, especially as Jetstar commences new routes to Australia out of Dunedin and Hamilton later this year.

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