Chinese travelers have opened up their wallets and contributed to a record spending by overseas visitors in New Zealand, according to government figures out Friday.
The total international visitor spend was up 7 percent year on year to 10.06 billion NZ dollars (7.05 billion U.S. dollars) in the year to the end of September, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
Spending by Chinese visitors was up 12 percent to 1.74 billion NZ dollars (1.22 billion U.S. dollars), making China the second biggest source of visitor spending. While Australia remained the biggest source of spending, it was up just 1 percent to 2.44 billion NZ dollars (1.71 billion U.S. dollars).
Foreign holidaymakers spent the most in total, with a total spend of 6.3 billion NZ dollars (4.41 billion U.S. dollars), up 11 percent year on year.
"The latest International Visitor Survey results suggest that while international visitor spend remains positive, there are signs the spending has begun to stabilize after period of record growth, peaking in September 2015 at 38 percent," MBIE manager of sector trends Peter Ellis said.
"Over the September quarter, the New Zealand dollar appreciated against the currencies of most of our key source markets which likely contributed to growth stabilizing in international visitor spend," said Ellis.
Visitors to New Zealand numbered 3.39 million in the September year, up 11 percent year on year, the government's Statistics New Zealand agency said last month.
The biggest changes in visitor arrivals by country of residence between the September years were from Australia (up 80,000 to 1.38 million), China (up 77,600 to 405,500) and the United States (up 32,700 to 270,000).
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