People relax at Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown. File pic Photo: RNZ / Belinda McCammon
The number of international visitors is rising but is still well below pre-pandemic levels.
Stats NZ said 2.9 million visitors arrived in New Zealand in the year to November 2023, an enormous increase of 1.83 million compared to the previous year.
The number of visitors from Australia more than doubled from 605,000 in 2022 to 1.27m in 2023.
Stats NZ also compared arrivals for the month of November to the same periods in 2022 and 2019.
In total, 303,400 visitors arrived in New Zealand last November, 70,700 more than during November 2022.
But it was well below the November 2019 period in which the country welcomed 372,100 visitors.
Stats NZ said 38 percent of visitors were from Australia and 13 percent were from the United States.
Visitors from China were among the slowest to return post-pandemic, making up just 7 percent of tourists compared to 11 percent in November 2019.