{"id":13057,"date":"2026-05-15T05:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=13057"},"modified":"2026-05-14T16:10:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T04:10:28","slug":"sweet-as-more-tourists-and-the-numbers-back-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=13057","title":{"rendered":"Sweet as, more tourists and the numbers back it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mike Bain\/cvnznews.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve been out and about lately, you\u2019ve probably felt it \u2014 the caf\u00e9s a bit busier, the queues at the airport a bit longer, and a few more accents floating around the streets. Turns out it\u2019s not just your imagination. New Stats NZ numbers show international visitors are rolling back in, and it\u2019s giving the whole country a decent lift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hon Louise Upston
Minister for Tourism and Hospitality says more visitors means more money flowing into New Zealand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In March alone, 358,900 visitors<\/strong> touched down in Aotearoa \u2014 that\u2019s 15% more<\/strong> than this time last year and edging closer to the pre\u2011COVID buzz of 2019. And honestly, you can feel the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More visitors means more people booking beds, grabbing flat whites, hiring cars, jumping on tours, and filling up the shops. It\u2019s money flowing straight into local businesses, and heaps of operators say they\u2019re finally seeing some momentum again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No surprises here: the Aussies are still our biggest fans. 138,360<\/strong> of them popped over in March \u2014 up a massive 21%<\/strong>. The US is also climbing (8.3% up<\/strong>), and China\u2019s bouncing back strongly too (20% up<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the whole year to March 2026, we welcomed 3.63 million visitors<\/strong>, which is 9.2% more<\/strong> than the year before. For a sector that\u2019s been through the wringer, that\u2019s a solid comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tourism is still our second\u2011biggest export earner<\/strong>, and when it\u2019s humming, the benefits spread everywhere \u2014 from the hospo crew pulling pints and pouring coffees, to the tour guides, retail staff, shuttle drivers, and all the small businesses that rely on steady foot traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s even more impressive is that this growth has come despite the fuel crisis, which could\u2019ve easily scared people off. But travellers are still choosing New Zealand, and industry leaders say that\u2019s a sign our appeal is as strong as ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk to anyone in Queenstown, Rotorua, Wellington, or even the smaller regional towns, and you\u2019ll hear the same thing: \u201cYeah, it\u2019s picking up. You can feel the buzz again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s good news \u2014 not just for tourism, but for the whole country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike Bain\/cvnznews.com If you\u2019ve been out and about lately, you\u2019ve probably felt it \u2014 the caf\u00e9s a bit busier, the queues at the airport a bit longer, and a few more accents floating around the streets. Turns out it\u2019s not just your imagination. New Stats NZ numbers show international visitors are rolling back in,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[113,633,805],"coauthors":[709],"class_list":{"0":"post-13057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-statistics","10":"tag-tourism"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Tourism-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13059,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13057\/revisions\/13059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13057"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=13057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}