Chinese biggest contributors to New Zealand tourism spending growth

Total annual spending by overseas visitors in New Zealand has topped 10 billion NZ dollars (6.77 billion U.S. dollars) for the first time, with growth of 25 percent in the year to the end of March, according to a government report out Friday.

The spending growth was driven by visitors from China and the United States, the International Visitor Survey from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) showed.

Spending by Chinese visitors was up 41 percent to a total of 1.7 billion NZ dollars (1.15 billion U.S. dollars), while spending by U.S. visitors was up 46 percent to 1.2 billion NZ dollars (812.16 million U.S. dollars), MBIE sector trends manager Peter Ellis said in a statement.

"China's visitor spend has continued to grow rapidly in this period and is still the largest contributor to the expenditure growth, increasing 500 million NZ dollars (338.3 million U.S. dollars) in the March 2016 year," said Ellis.

"At the same time Australia, currently New Zealand's largest tourism market, has kept growing steadily, up 15 percent to 2.5 billion NZ dollars (1.69 billion U.S. dollars)."

The figures were evidence of the sector's importance to the economy, Associate Tourism Minister Paula Bennett said in a statement.

"Surpassing 10 billion NZ dollars in visitor spend for the first time confirms that the tourism sector is continuing to grow and is adding significant value to the economy," Bennett said.

The government would invest a further 45 million NZ dollars (30.45 million U.S. dollars) in tourism over the next four years, in addition to the more than 130 million NZ dollars (87.91 million U.S. dollars) a year it already spent, she said.