Govt pockets $3.3b from tourist spend
Tourism spending has hit $36 billion, but our international visitors are spending less.
The latest figures from Statistics New Zealand also show previous estimates of earnings from the cruise industry may have been overstated.
The tourism industry says the rising GST take from visitors reinforces its case for more investment in infrastructure.
Total tourism spending was up 1.9 per cent ($686 million) for the 12 months to March, following an 11 per cent rise the previous year.
Kiwi tourists spent $21.4b in the year to March, up 4 per cent.
Overseas visitor spending dropped by $135m to $14.5b, even though international arrivals increased just under 9 per cent.
Tourism organisations met Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis yesterday and made a point of highlighting that international tourists paid $1.5b in GST, with a further $1.8b collected from domestic visitors.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) chief executive Chris Roberts said the Government was collecting more in GST from visitors than ever before.
‘‘It certainly adds more weight to TIA’s argument that some of the GST windfall from the tourism boom should be invested back into funding infrastructure needs.’’
International tourism remained New Zealand’s largest export earner, and it was responsible for a fifth of earnings from all exports of goods and services.
It accounted for 5.6 per cent of gross domestic product and directly employs 230,793 people, or 8.4 per cent of the workforce.
For the first time the official statistics cover spending related to cruise-ship visits, which was worth $306m to the economy, up 12.5 per cent on the previous year.
That figure is well below the $624m estimate in a financial impact report published by Cruise New Zealand in August.