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International travel covers the number and characteristics of overseas visitors and New Zealand resident travellers (short-term movements) entering or leaving New Zealand.

Key facts

Monthly arrivals – overseas visitors

Overseas visitor arrivals were 214,300 in August 2024, an increase of 7,500 from August 2023. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 13,800)
• China (up 3,200)
• United States (down 6,500).

The total number of overseas visitor arrivals in August 2024 was 85 percent of the 251,100 in August 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 214,300 overseas visitor arrivals in August 2024:

• 53 percent were from Australia (compared with 49 percent in August 2019)
• 9 percent were from China (12 percent in August 2019)
• 5 percent were from the United States (6 percent in August 2019)
• 4 percent were from Japan (4 percent in August 2019).

Monthly arrivals – New Zealand-resident travellers

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 255,900 in August 2024, an increase of 14,700 from August 2023. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 8,900)
• Indonesia (up 4,100)
• Fiji (down 1,900)
• New Caledonia (down 1,900).

The total number of New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in August 2024 was 90 percent of the 284,500 in August 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 255,900 New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in August 2024:

• 38 percent were from Australia (compared with 40 percent in August 2019)
• 10 percent were from Fiji (8 percent in August 2019)
• 6 percent were from the United States (7 percent in August 2019)
• 6 percent were from the United Kingdom (6 percent in August 2019)
• 5 percent were from Indonesia (4 percent in August 2019)
• 5 percent were from the Cook Islands (4 percent in August 2019).

Annual arrivals

Overseas visitor arrivals were 3.23 million in the August 2024 year, an increase of 535,000 from the August 2023 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• China (up 156,000 to 244,000)
• Australia (up 81,000 to 1.33 million)
• United States (up 59,000 to 358,000)
• Korea (up 28,000 to 70,000)
• Japan (up 22,000 to 64,000)
• Taiwan (up 22,000 to 46,000).

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 2.96 million in the August 2024 year, an increase of 558,000 from the August 2023 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 271,000 to 1.19 million)
• China (up 86,000 to 141,000)
• Japan (up 32,000 to 69,000)
• Indonesia (up 27,000 to 73,000).

New Zealand-resident arrivals from France

In the August 2024 year, a record 26,900 New Zealand-resident travellers arrived back from short-term (less than 12 months) trips to France. This was up 10,700 from the August 2023 year. The previous record for any year (before 2023), was 22,700 in the September 2019 year.

Arrivals in the August 2024 year were boosted by 5,600 arrivals in October 2023, coinciding with the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and 3,400 arrivals in August 2024, coinciding with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Border crossings

There were 974,000 border crossings in August 2024, made up of 479,900 arrivals and 494,000 departures. In August 2023 there were 936,800 border crossings.

August 2024 border crossings were 89 percent of the 1.1 million in August 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital arrival card

A digital arrival card (New Zealand Traveller Declaration – NZTD) is available to travellers who have entered New Zealand from mid-July 2023, alongside the existing paper arrival card. Christchurch and Wellington airports were the first to use the NZTD, followed by Queenstown airport in late July 2023 and Auckland airport in late August 2023.

Data from July 2023 onwards therefore includes a growing proportion of digital responses, although paper responses are still the majority. In August 2024, about 2 in 5 of all traveller arrivals completed the digital NZTD.

The implementation of the NZTD has no impact on the range of statistical information available to international travel and migration customers.

Early and provisional international travel data

Each week, Stats NZ releases early and provisional international travel statistics -  - to facilitate analysis of New Zealand’s inbound and outbound tourism sectors.

This includes:

• weekly travel data for short-term overseas visitor and New Zealand-resident arrivals
• arrivals and departures data based solely on border crossings into and out of New Zealand
• stock estimates of visitors in New Zealand and New Zealand residents travelling overseas, based on arrivals and departures.

More data

Use to access time-series data for international travel and migration:

Subject category: Tourism
Group: International travel and migration – ITM

Definitions and metadata

gives general methodology used to produce international travel and migration statistics.

gives definitions of terms used in this release.

gives methodology for determining the New Zealand-location information in short-term New Zealand-resident arrival records.

Technical enquiries

Mosiana Ha’unga

ISSN 2624-2710

Next release

International travel: September 2024 will be released on 13 November 2024.