Chinese New Year Boosts Visitors to February Record

Chinese New Year Boosts Visitors to February Record

More than 15,000 visitors a day on average arrived in New Zealand in February, setting a new record for the month, Stats NZ said today.

Total overseas visitor arrivals numbered 423,500 in February 2018, the highest for any February. This total was up 43,400 from February 2017.

“The strong increase in visitor arrivalsin February 2018 coincided with Chinese New Year, which is a peak travel period,” population insights senior manager Peter Dolan said. Chinese New Year was in mid-February this year, compared with late January in 2017.

February 2018 saw 68,900 visitors arriving from China; this was more than double the 33,700 that arrived in February 2017.

More visitors also arrived from other Asian countries that celebrate Chinese New Year; arrivals were up 2,200 from Hong Kong and 1,400 from Taiwan, compared with February 2017.

Visitor arrivals from Asia increased 50 percent in February 2018 from February 2017 – from 80,400 to 120,700.

The record visitor arrivals for the month also contributed to a record number for the February 2018 year. Visitor arrivals for the year numbered 3.78 million – a 7 percent increase on the February 2017 year.

New Zealanders make more trips overseas

New Zealand residents set a new annual February record of 2.87 million overseas trips in 2018, up 215,700 (8 percent) from the February 2017 year.The number of trips made to most countries increased, the largest increases being:

• Australia – up 37,000 (3 percent)
• Fiji– up 19,000 (12 percent)
• China – up 18,600 (18 percent)
• United Kingdom – up 12,700 (11 percent)
• India – up 7,600 (11 percent).

In the February 2018 month, New Zealand residents made 151,100 trips overseas, up 2 percent from February 2017. “We had as many New Zealanders travelling overseas in February as the combined population of the Tasman, Nelson, and Marlborough regions,” Mr Dolan said.

ENDS

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