NEW ZEALAND: Big Tourism Spending In Wellington

Wellington can look forward to a record-breaking summer tourism season, after strong visitor spending capped off a bumper year.

Recent figures from the Tourism Association figures show international tourism has surpassed dairy and is New Zealand's number one export earner, bringing in $13.5 billion, surpassing dairy exports of $13b.

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment regional tourism indicators for the year to November showed significant year-on-year increases for Wellington across the domestic, Australian and international visitor categories.

The electronic spending indexes showed Wellington's spending was above the national average in all three market categories.

Chris Whelan, chief executive of the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency, said recent regional tourism estimates put total tourism spending in Wellington at $2.5b for the year to March 2015.

The figures indicated Wellington had done particularly well out of a strong year for tourism nationwide, he said.

"On the back of the subsequent indexes, we can look forward to that number climbing even higher for the year to March 2016."

The past year had seen a number of tourism indicators pave the way for Wellington to hit record highs.

Commercial guest nights in Wellington hit their highest 12-month total in November 2014, eclipsing the previous record set during Rugby World Cup in 2011.

The rolling total rose steadily in 2015, pushing past 2.5 million for the first time ever in April.

"Latest figures show more than 118,000 additional commercial guest nights were spent in Wellington in January to October, compared with the same period last year. Every one of those means additional revenue coming in to the visitor economy."

More international tourists than ever were now flying directly into Wellington, with three new international air services starting operations in Wellington during the past 12 months.

The total number of direct arrivals in the last 12 months reached 200,000 for the first time in September.

"Increased connectivity increases the likelihood that international tourists will include Wellington on their itinerary," Whelan said.

"More than that, it opens up opportunities for trade and investment to flow into Wellington."

Wellington was now in the top New Zealand urban destination for average length-of-stay, sitting only behind Queenstown, Northland and Bay of Plenty.

As the capital, Wellington had a large number of short-visit business travellers, Whelan said.

"So lifting our length-of-stay figure is very pleasing."

Other factors also contributed to 2015's strong tourism performance.

A strong national trend started with one-off events like the ICC Cricket World Cup and the Hurricanes playoff matches, plus the return of major concerts to Westpac Stadium all provided big lifts, Whelan said.