International Travel 23 January

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 321,200 in November 2024, an increase of 17,800 from November 2023. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 14,100)
• United Kingdom (up 3,700)
• Singapore (up 1,900)
• Germany (up 1,200)
• Japan (up 1,200)
• Korea (up 1,200)
• Taiwan (up 1,100)
• United States (down 1,000).

The total number of overseas visitor arrivals in November 2024 was 86 percent of the 372,100 in November 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 321,200 overseas visitor arrivals in November 2024:

• 39 percent were from Australia (compared with 36 percent in November 2019)
• 12 percent were from the United States (11 percent in November 2019)
• 7 percent were from China (11 percent in November 2019)
• 6 percent were from the United Kingdom (6 percent in November 2019).

Monthly arrivals - New Zealand-resident travellers

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 231,800 in November 2024, an increase of 5,000 from November 2023. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 7,600)
• China (up 3,600)
• Japan (up 2,800)
• Indonesia (up 2,400)
• India (up 1,800)
• France (down 2,100)
• New Caledonia (down 1,900)
• Vanuatu (down 1,500).

The total number of New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in November 2024 was 99 percent of the 233,700 in November 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 231,800 New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in November 2024:

• 47 percent were from Australia (compared with 48 percent in November 2019)
• 6 percent were from Fiji (5 percent in November 2019)
• 5 percent were from the United States (6 percent in November 2019)
• 5 percent were from China (4 percent in November 2019)
• 4 percent were from India (3 percent in November 2019)
• 4 percent were from Japan (4 percent in November 2019)
• 4 percent were from the Cook Islands (4 percent in November 2019).

Annual arrivals

Overseas visitor arrivals were 3.26 million in the November 2024 year, an increase of 360,000 from the November 2023 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• China (up 109,000 to 246,000)
• Australia (up 92,000 to 1.36 million)
• United States (up 38,000 to 361,000)
• Japan (up 17,000 to 66,000)
• Korea (up 16,000 to 70,000)
• Taiwan (up 14,000 to 46,000).

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 2.98 million in the November 2024 year, an increase of 338,000 from the November 2023 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 209,000 to 1.21 million)
• China (up 66,000 to 148,000)
• Indonesia (up 27,000 to 83,000)
• Japan (up 27,000 to 75,000)
• Cook Islands (up 16,000 to 108,000)
• Fiji (up 10,000 to 211,000).

Border crossings

There were 1.09 million border crossings in November 2024, made up of 563,100 arrivals and 522,300 departures. In November 2023 there were 1.05 million border crossings.

November 2024 border crossings were 92 percent of the 1.19 million in November 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital arrival card

A digital arrival card (New Zealand Traveller Declaration - NZTD) is available to travellers who have entered 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 November 2024, just over half 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

Mosiana Ha'unga
03 964 8838
[email protected]

ISSN 2624-2710

Next release

International travel: December 2024 will be released on 17 February 2025.