NZ posts record arrivals for March

AUCKLAND – Strong arrivals from China and Australia and an early Easter have helped to lift visitor arrivals for March by five percent, to a record 250,000.

China has become New Zealand’s fourth largest tourism market. Visitor arrivals from China were up 20 percent in March to 10,650 and up almost nine percent to 124,323 for the March year.

Year-on-year visitor arrivals from Australia were up by 6,700 (8 percent) in March.

The early Easter appears to have bolstered visitor arrivals from the UK and USA; cruise passengers accounted for most of the increase from the United States in March.

Direct flights from Canada to Auckland helped push up Canadian visitor arrivals by 16 percent to 6,400.