NZ tourism slumps in March with fewer visitors, shorter stays

Wednesday 22nd April 2009

Tourism slumped in March, with fewer visitors registering shorter stays in New Zealand, while a smaller number of locals travelled abroad during the same period last year.

International arrivals in March tumbled 10% to 226,500 visitors compared to the same month in 2008, according to Statistics New Zealand. The number of New Zealanders departing on short-term trips slid 6% to 126,700.

“The widespread industry anecdote suggests fewer travellers and given the recessionary state of most source countries, this is an obvious transmission channel of the global turmoil,” said Robin Clements, economist at UBS NZ. “A more competitive exchange rate, cheap airfares and increased marketing are the only potential offsets for the forthcoming winter low tourism season.”

The monthly fall in short-term visitors was the tenth such decline in the past year, as the weaker New Zealand dollar failed to attract tourists in the face of a global economic downturn. The Ministry of Tourism estimated 6% of the decline could be attributable to Easter being in April not March this year. Data in April would likely be better than the underlying pattern, as a result.

Visitors from the UK slumped by more than a quarter to 27,300 while US tourists declined 20% to 20,300. Chinese tourism rose 9% to 11,600, but registered fewer business travellers. The average intended stay of visitors arriving in March slipped to 18 days from 19 days last year.

Tourism Holdings, New Zealand’s largest campervan operator, reported a half-year loss of $265,000 on Feb. 18 which forced it to suspend its dividend payment. Shares in the company sank 2.2% to 45 cents on the NZX 50 Index today, and have plummeted more than 75% in the past 12 months.

Auckland International Airport, the busiest gateway to the country, told the Sunday Start-Times that domestic travellers were down by between 3% and 5%, and that the company would concentrate more on its substantial property holdings. The shares slid 1.2% to $1.68 in trading today.

A Paymark survey on April 6 showed accommodation and travel sectors reported the biggest fall in electronic transactions, reporting an 8% and 14% decline respectively in the month of March year-on-year. Permanent and long-term arrivals to New Zealand rose 4.4% to 6617 in March, while departures sank 14% to 6304, according to the government statistician. Net migration increased by 313 in March, after falling by 1,009 in the same period last year.

Businesswire.co.nz

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