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| nationalgeographic.com |
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.
One
standout in the survey was China, said the Ministry's tourism
research and evaluation manager Peter Ellis.
"If
it weren't for the Rugby World Cup in this period we would have seen
a decrease in total visitor spend of well over $200 million.
"However,
expenditure from Chinese visitors increased by 27 per cent to $522
million.
"China
is now our third-largest tourist market and just shy of the $568
million spent by visitors from the UK."
China
had already overtaken Germany and the United States and will soon
become our second-largest visitor market, behind Australia, Ellis
said.
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.
The
average expenditure was $2300.
The
International Visitor Survey is based on interviews with 5200
tourists per year departing from New Zealand airports.
Source:
nzherald
