International travel to New Zealand

IBISWorld forecasts international travel to New Zealand to rise by 8.4% in 2025-26, to 3.60 million. Through the first five months of the year, the number of international arrivals is more than 85,000 people stronger than at the same time during 2024-25. Notably, the growth in inbound travel in 2025-26 is set to be larger in magnitude than in 2024-25, reversing the exponential diminishing growth trend that has been evident in the post-pandemic global tourism landscape.

Over the past five years, the number of international travellers visiting New Zealand has shown unprecedented volatility. In 2020-21, the pandemic and the resultant restrictions on international arrivals caused the largest decrease in the number of international arrivals into New Zealand on record, falling by 98.6%, to just above 50,000 visitors. While this figure showed some improvement in the following year to reach almost 230,000, the New Zealand border remained closed for the bulk of 2021-22, causing international tourism to remain inhibited. Following the lifting of border restrictions in early 2022, New Zealand experienced a surge in inbound international arrivals. Likewise, from 20 October 2022, travellers were no longer required to provide proof of vaccination or COVID-19 tests, bolstering consumers' confidence in travel. As a result, international visitor arrivals spiked back to 2.20 million in 2022-23. The post-pandemic international travel rebound continued into 2023-24 and 2024-25 but annual figures were unable to eclipse the pre-pandemic record of 3.87 million inbound travellers, set in 2018-19. While marketing campaigns by Tourism New Zealand aimed to narrow this gap, high levels of inflation globally placed substantial pressure on consumers' ability to travel abroad.

According to Statistics New Zealand, Australia, China, the United States and the United Kingdom typically account for just over 65% of international arrivals. Holidays are the primary reason for inbound international travel to New Zealand in an average year, with other segments including visiting friends & relatives, business and education. Overall, IBISWorld forecasts that the number of international arrivals will rise at a compound annual rate of 135.2% (pandemic-impacted) over the five years through 2025-26.