Spending by overseas tourists jumped 20% to a record $14.5 billion in the year to March 2016, says Statistics New Zealand.
Its Tourism Satellite Account: 2016 shows this leap follows a 17% increase the previous year.
With the number of short-term international visitors to New Zealand increasing by 10%, international tourism expenditure contributed 21% to New Zealand’s total exports of goods and services.
“Increasing visitor numbers from across key international markets, on the back of expanding airline and cruise capacity, drove the increase in spending by international tourists,” says Stats NZ’s national accounts senior manager Daniel Griffiths.
As for domestic tourism, spending increased by 7% to $20.2 billion.
“The increase in domestic spending was particularly strong in the retail, passenger transport, and hospitality sectors,” Griffiths says.
Altogether, tourism expenditure increased 12% to $34.7 billion, following a 10% increase the previous year.
Stats NZ says tourism generated a direct contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) of $12.9 billion, which is equivalent to 5.6% of GDP.
The indirect value of industries supporting tourism generated an additional $9.8 billion – 4.3% of GDP.
Stats NZ says 188,136, or nearly 8% of all employed people in New Zealand, worked in the tourism sector in the last year.
Tourists generated $2.8 billion in GST revenue.
Here is a selection of noteworthy graphs from the Tourism Satellite Account: 2016.
This one shows the rapid growth of New Zealand’s international tourism sector:
This graph shows the value of international tourism in relation to some of New Zealand’s other exports:
This graph shows where tourists are coming from:
This graph shows how tourists are spending their money:
18 Comments
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The tourism business owners reap the rewards but for employees it's an incredibly low wage industry. I'm not sure it can be any other way given so many jobs are low skilled. In fact, I heard National were talking about lowering the minimum wage for tourism jobs. You know - good for the economy and all that. More profit for the bosses! As Tim says it'll trickle down *starts belly laughing*.
Air NZ need some credit here. They have been focusing on bringing higher value tourists to NZ and that appears to be showing through.
People don't talk about it but our tourism infrastructure is creaking under the boom and need serious investment to accommodate the increased numbers.
Climate change means no airport expansion – at Heathrow or anywhere
George Monbiot
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/18/climate-change-ai…
...and that's why Guardian readership is in the toilet. The current UN poll ranks action on climate change dead last.
I know you really don't care but
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/africa/85812646/wildlife-populations-plung…
I wish I could be as caring as a climate change zealot. Action against climate change is meaningless virtue signalling with with a $1.5 trillion per annum price tag. "Wind farms are devastating populations of rare birds and bats across the world, driving some to the point of extinction. Most environmentalists just don’t want to know. Because they’re so desperate to believe in renewable energy, they’re in a state of denial. But the evidence suggests that, this century at least, renewables pose a far greater threat to wildlife than climate change.
I’m a lecturer in biological and human sciences at Oxford university. I trained as a zoologist, I’ve worked as an environmental consultant — conducting impact assessments on projects like the Folkestone-to-London rail link — and I now teach ecology and conservation. Though I started out neutral on renewable energy, I’ve since seen the havoc wreaked on wildlife by wind power, hydro power, biofuels and tidal barrages. The environmentalists who support such projects do so for ideological reasons. What few of them have in their heads, though, is the consolation of science."
Note your WWF puff piece states real problems such as pollution, invasive species and hunting - barely mentions climate change.
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