Photo: 123RF
Australian holiday goers spent about 20 percent more compared to pre-Covid levels despite arrivals not fully recovering, new figures suggest.
Insights from Tourism New Zealand show Australian visitors contributed close to $1.6 billion to the economy in the year to June, compared to $1.3 billion during the same period in 2019.
They stayed 11 days on average and spent around $330 per day.
Chief executive René de Monchy said Australian holiday arrivals have recovered to about 80 percent.
"That's actually a very positive outcome. We've seen ... our focus of really targeting high quality visitors who stay longer and spend more is starting to really bare fruits."
It was vital to continue to position Aotearoa as an attractive destination for high quality Australian visitors, he said.
"Australians were the most likely to travel year-round to New Zealand. Obviously short-haul market so multiple trips are possible so that's why we do a lot more active promotion throughout the year."
Trans Tasman flight capacity has recovered to 91 percent.
de Monchy said there was also good flight capacity for North American travel, but American Airlines focused on our summer.
"In the winter, they utilise their aircraft to fly to northern hemisphere summer destinations.
"That's the big opportunity for us is to try and get some of those services year-round so that we're better connected to the world, it's better for freight opportunities and it's good for inbound travel as well."
He expected a strong summer ahead, driven by North America and more visitors from China.
"The predictions are we'll probably be around about 85 percent of what we were going through the summer.
"Again, that's just a measurement of reference so we're not targeting to go back to the past."