Rugby World Cup lifts New Zealand International Arrivals in October

A second strong month of international visitor arrivals has seen the Rugby World Cup 2011 (RWC 2011) forecasts well surpassed.

Statistics New Zealand's International Visitor Arrivals (IVA) data released today show that 16.8 per cent more visitors arrived in October 2011 than the same month last year.

The total number of visitors arriving for the Rugby World Cup 2011 is confirmed at 133,200 against a forecast of 95,000 for July through to the end of October.

Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive Kevin Bowler says to see the forecasts exceeded so resoundingly is a fantastic result.

"We promoted the New Zealand message hard around the tournament and so expected to see this sort of growth from traditional rugby-loving nations like Australia (up 17,200 people, 21.2 per cent), South Africa (up 4,900 people, 417.4 per cent) the UK (up 2,800 people, 18.8 per cent) and France (up 2,700 people, 146.6 per cent).

"What we also see in the October result is that the RWC helped lift year-end visitor arrivals back into growth (up 2.6 per cent) after a really difficult year.

"The steady, significant growth in visitors from China (up 22.8 per cent); Malaysia (up 141 per cent) and Singapore (up 99 per cent) round out what was a very good month for inbound international arrivals.

"Indications are we can anticipate further visitor growth from the Asian and South East Asia markets over the coming months.

"China Southern started daily flights between Guangzhou and Auckland on 1 November, Air New Zealand has re-instated its direct flights from Japan to Christchurch and Korean Air has announced a 30 per cent increase in capacity into New Zealand over December and January.

"These are great signals of confidence in air travel, and of course in New Zealand," he concludes.