At Eden Park Bed and Breakfast we are always monitoring our arrivals and maintain our own meter as to New Zealand’s Inbound Tourism Industry so, when I read that China is now our third-largest tourist market and just shy of the $568 million spent by visitors from the UK, I have to wonder where are they?
The reports say that China has surged ahead of the United States and is on the verge of becoming New Zealand’s second-biggest tourist market, according to the latest International Visitor Survey.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s survey showed tourism spending was $5.6 billion for the year ending June 2012. This was flat on the previous year’s total spend of $5.5 billion, despite visitor numbers having risen 5 per cent to 2.6 million. However, expenditure from Chinese visitors increased by 27 per cent to $522 million.
China had already overtaken Germany and the United States and will soon become our second-largest visitor market, behind Australia. The number of Australian visitors to New Zealand increased 6 per cent to 1.17 million but spending stayed flat at $1.6 billion. Each tourist spent an average of 19.4 days in the country, down from 20.1 days in the year ended June 2011.
Wish I could some of this bonanza at Eden Park Bed and Breakfast !
