Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler says recently collated international visitor arrival figures for April show steady growth from core markets and some fantastic holiday arrival numbers.

“Our strong summer visitor arrivals have continued into autumn, meaning April’s arrival figures are the highest ever for an April month, up 2.5 per cent on 2012. As a result, year-on-year arrivals are flat against last year, for the first time in six months. This is significant as we are comparing arrivals against the year-ending April 2012, which includes arrivals for the Rugby World Cup late in 2011. Australia, our largest source of arrivals, is back in growth for the year, up 0.9 per cent. Also in growth for the year [are] China (28.9%), Japan, (12.9%), Germany (3.0%) and the USA (2.4%).”

Kevin points out that even more positive indications can be seen in holiday arrivals, and the combined figures for the first four months of 2013 show holiday arrivals are up 9.8 per cent on the same period last year.

“This increase in holiday arrivals over January-April perfectly coincides with the release of the first Hobbit film and a significant increase in our efforts to promote New Zealand as a holiday destination off the back of it … At a market level, year-ending April holiday arrivals from China are up 34.5 per cent, Japan is up 15.7 per cent, the USA is up 7.5 per cent, and Germany is up 3.4 per cent.”

“These are five our Tourism New Zealand’s top markets and the focus of our activity. To see holiday arrivals up from here is a solid result of the work that we are doing.”