Kia ora THE There was good news for the tourism sector in the July international visitor arrivals data this month. There were 3.39 million international visitor arrivals in the year ending July 2025, up more than 168,000 (5.2%) on the previous year.
Holiday arrivals are the segment most influenced by Tourism New Zealand's marketing efforts and this was up 12.7%, more than twice as fast as overall arrivals growth. This is very encouraging, with double-digit increases in the key markets of Australia (+17%), the US (+10%) and the UK (+16%). The 617,022 holiday visitors from Australia was an all-time high.
In July 2025, the number of holiday visitors exceeded July 2019 volumes: the first time since borders re-opening that holiday arrivals have been over 100% of 2019. There is plenty to be optimistic about as we head toward summer, as well as work to be done with the overall volume of visitors still sitting at 87% of 2019 levels. ______________________________________________________ This month the Government announced a Major Events and Tourism package, outlining a bundle of investment in major events activity, RTO marketing and tourism infrastructure upgrades.
Major events can be hugely helpful in driving international visitation and this investment will support our efforts to reach 3.9 million international arrivals by the end of 2026 and double the value of tourism by 2034.
High profile events like the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup provided a huge boost, but some high impact events can fly under the radar, like the World Choir Games. All major events provide different opportunities to put New Zealand up in lights as a destination. We are working closely with MBIE and RTOs on the Regional Tourism Boost, helping to make this as effective and efficient as possible for the sector. ______________________________________________________
On the Business Events front, last week we celebrated our bid champions — experts in their fields who we worked with to secure conferences. In FY25 we secured 64 conference wins with an estimated economic impact of $78.8m.
This is one of my favourite industry engagements because I meet so many fantastic people working hard to make New Zealand better by bringing expertise from around the world in their many and varied fields. We are proud to support their endeavours for the benefit of the country, the events sector and the many tourism businesses that benefit from these events too.
It's a good opportunity to look back and appreciate the successes while we focus our attention on securing $185m in conferences this year, our highest ever value target.
______________________________________________________ We've recently launched the next round of our latest 100% Pure New Zealand campaign in the US, offering our unique welcome to our second largest visitor market and addressing some knowledge gaps too with information about direct flights.
Work in our key markets alongside tourism operators continues next month with Kiwi Link events in China, the US and UK all under way. Bringing these events to life is crucial to arrivals growth, building commercial connections between trade and our amazing operators, connecting with trade partners, and offering education opportunities for trade so they can more confidently sell New Zealand to their clients. Best of luck to all of those attending, I am sure it will be a fruitful mission!
Tourism New Zealand is also supporting New Zealand's presence at WYSTC Lisbon next month, alongside a small contingent of New Zealand businesses from the youth sector. Focused on the youth, student and educational travel sector, the trade event sees hundreds of buyers and sellers gather for contracting, networking and collaboration.
I am also on the road, joining Minister Upston and an industry delegation on a tourism-focused trade mission to China. We're travelling to Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing to meet with Chinese airlines, trade partners, e-commerce platforms and the tourism industry.
All the best for the coming month. | 
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