International Travel 14 April

International travel covers the number and characteristics of overseas visitors and New Zealand resident travellers (short-term movements) entering or leaving New Zealand.

Key facts

Monthly arrivals - overseas visitors
Monthly arrivals - New Zealand-resident travellers
Annual arrivals
Border crossings

Monthly arrivals - overseas visitors

Overseas visitor arrivals were 354,400 in February 2025, a decrease of 8,400 from February 2024. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• United States (up 8,200)
• Australia (up 7,600)
• United Kingdom (up 3,100)
• Canada (up 1,600)
• Japan (up 1,100)
• China (down 18,400)
• Taiwan (down 1,500)
• Malaysia (down 1,200).

There were 63,700 overseas visitor arrivals from the United States in February 2025, which is a record for any month from that country.

The fall in overseas visitor arrivals from China in February 2025 compared to February 2024 reflected the timing of the Chinese New Year. In 2025, the Chinese New Year began on 29 January. In 2024 it began on 10 February. Monthly arrivals from China typically peak in January or February each year, depending on the timing of the Chinese New Year.

There were 55,200 overseas visitor arrivals from China in January and February 2025 combined. This compares with 58,500 in the same period in 2024.

The total number of overseas visitor arrivals in February 2025 was 85 percent of the 417,900 in February 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 354,400 overseas visitor arrivals in February 2025:

• 33 percent were from Australia (compared with 30 percent in February 2019)
• 18 percent were from the United States (13 percent in February 2019)
• 9 percent were from the United Kingdom (9 percent in February 2019)
• 6 percent were from China (12 percent in February 2019)
• 4 percent were from Canada (3 percent in February 2019).

Monthly arrivals - New Zealand-resident travellers

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 207,300 in February 2025, an increase of 2,700 from February 2024. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• China (up 7,200)
• India (up 2,400)
• Indonesia (up 1,700)
• Fiji (up 1,600)
• Philippines (up 1,300)
• Viet Nam (up 1,100)
• Australia (down 12,700).

The 207,300 New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in February 2025 was a record for a February month. The record for any month was 345,100 in July 2018.

The total number of New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in February 2025 was 109 percent of the 190,600 in February 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 207,300 New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in February 2025:

• 39 percent were from Australia (compared with 44 percent in February 2019)
• 11 percent were from China (10 percent in February 2019)
• 8 percent were from India (7 percent in February 2019)
• 5 percent were from Fiji (4 percent in February 2019)
• 4 percent were from the United States (5 percent in February 2019)
• 4 percent were from Japan (2 percent in February 2019).

Annual arrivals

Overseas visitor arrivals were 3.35 million in the February 2025 year, an increase of 240,000 from the February 2024 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 144,000 to 1.42 million)
• China (up 45,000 to 245,000)
• United Kingdom (up 18,000 to 186,000)
• United States (up 16,000 to 379,000)
• Japan (up 13,000 to 70,000)
• Taiwan (up 11,000 to 49,000).

The 379,000 overseas visitor arrivals from the United States in the February 2025 year was a record for any year from that country. The United States was the second largest source of overseas visitor arrivals in the February 2025 year, behind Australia.

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 3.00 million in the February 2025 year, an increase of 183,000 from the February 2024 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 115,000 to 1.22 million)
• China (up 34,000 to 154,000)
• Indonesia (up 31,000 to 89,000)
• Japan (up 20,000 to 79,000)
• Cook Islands (up 13,000 to 110,000)
• New Caledonia (down 11,000 to 2,000).

Border crossings

There were 1.11 million border crossings in February 2025, made up of 574,800 arrivals and 536,400 departures. In February 2024 there were 1.12 million border crossings.

February 2025 border crossings were 93 percent of the 1.19 million in February 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital arrival card

A digital arrival card (New Zealand Traveller Declaration - NZTD) became available to travellers entering New Zealand from mid-July 2023, alongside the existing paper arrival card. Christchurch and Wellington airports were the first to use the NZTD, followed by Queenstown airport in late July 2023 and Auckland airport in late August 2023.

Data from July 2023 onwards therefore includes a growing proportion of digital responses. In February 2025, just under 3 in 5 of all traveller arrivals completed the digital NZTD.

The implementation of the NZTD has no impact on the range of statistical information available to international travel and migration customers.

Early and provisional international travel data

Each week, Stats NZ releases early and provisional international travel statistics - International travel (provisional) - to facilitate analysis of New Zealand's inbound and outbound tourism sectors.

This includes:

• weekly travel data for short-term overseas visitor and New Zealand-resident arrivals
• arrivals and departures data based solely on border crossings into and out of New Zealand
• stock estimates of visitors in New Zealand and New Zealand residents travelling overseas, based on arrivals and departures.

More data

Use Infoshare to access time-series data for international travel and migration:

Subject category: Tourism
Group: International travel and migration - ITM

Definitions and metadata

International travel - DataInfo+ gives general methodology used to produce international travel and migration statistics.

International travel concepts - DataInfo+ gives definitions of terms used in this release.

Subnational short-term NZ-resident arrivals - DataInfo+ gives methodology for determining the New Zealand-location information in short-term New Zealand-resident arrival records.

Technical enquiries

Bridget Snodgrass
03 964 8317
[email protected]

ISSN 2624-2710

Next release

International travel: March 2025 will be released on 14 May 2025.