Overview
Short-term overseas visitor arrivals from the Americas accounted for 295,900 (12 percent) of the 2.459 million visitors to New Zealand in 2008. The United States was the leading source country within the Americas, accounting for 212,400 visitor arrivals, followed by Canada, with 53,300 visitors. Both have been key sources of visitors to New Zealand for many years.
The United States was New Zealand’s second-largest source of visitors (after Australia) between 1979 and 1995, and again in 1998 and 1999. Between 2000 and 2008, it was the third-largest source of visitors, after Australia and the United Kingdom. Canada was New Zealand’s fifth-largest source of visitors between 1979 and 1990, but after being surpassed by China, Korea and Germany it ranked eighth in 2008.
In 2008, 30,200 visitors arrived from other countries in the Americas, led by Brazil (11,400), Argentina (5,500) and Chile (4,800). Although these were not among the leading sources of visitors to New Zealand (ranked 26th, 36th and 38th, respectively), they have been contributing a growing share of visitor arrivals. This article examines changes in visitor numbers over time, from both the established sources of the United States and Canada, and the emerging sources of Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Country data are based on the country of last or next permanent residence, defined as the country the person last lived in (for arrivals), or will next live in (for departures), for 12 months or more.
If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, download Adobe Reader for PDFs to view or print this file.