Tourism body wary despite visitor boom

 Record numbers of tourists visited New Zealand in the year to the end of June, but observers are warning the industry to brace for weakness in coming months.

Statistics New Zealand figures showed that in the 12 months to June 30, New Zealand received 2.501 million short-term visitors, surpassing the 2.497m record reached in the year to March 30, 2008, before the global financial crisis hit key markets.

The growth in the 12 months to June was almost exclusively from Australia, with 1.12 million visitors coming from across the Tasman, representing 45 per cent of all visitors.

Visitors from the United States dropped 1.4 per cent to 194,000. In recent months the fall has been greater, with an 8 per cent fall from the US in June.

Kevin Bowler, chief executive of Tourism New Zealand, conceded that the recovery in many major countries was slower than anticipated and that tourism may face several challenging months. While there were signs of a sustained recovery in North Asia, Mr Bowler said the trend in North America, Europe and even Australia was weakening.

Tourism NZ has targeted the US as the top growth opportunity and has committed to spending more there than in any other country.

Air New Zealand recently pulled out of a major joint venture with Tourism NZ for the US after Continental Airlines announced a new service to New Zealand, but Mr Bowler said he believed that in the long term the opportunities from North America were still the greatest in the world.

"At its most fundamental level, the US is our big growth opportunity still, and we're still intending to invest more there than anywhere else," he said. "The rate at which we will see the results of that effort is perhaps going to be a little bit more delayed than we had hoped."

ANZ economist Mark Smith said that during the next few months tourism was likely to receive an ongoing boost from a strong Australian economy and dollar, but in the longer term the global economic situation was likely to hit tourist spending. "Global ructions have been such that the outlook for growth in other countries is probably a little bit weaker than it was a few months ago."

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