Source: Statistics New Zealand
Tourism satellite account: Year ended March 2025 – information release
3 March 2026
The tourism satellite account (TSA) provides an overview of tourism’s role in the New Zealand economy, highlighting the changing levels and impact of tourism activity. It presents information on tourism’s contribution to the economy in terms of expenditure and employment.
This release covers provisional figures for the year ended March 2025 and final detailed results for 2024.
Key provisional estimates
For the year ended March 2025 (expressed in nominal terms):
- total tourism expenditure was $46.6 billion, up 3.3 percent ($1.5 billion) from 2024
- international tourism expenditure was $18.1 billion, up 7.0 percent ($1.2 billion) from 2024
- as a percentage of total exports, international tourism expenditure was 17 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from 2024
- international student expenditure (studying less than 12 months) was $4 billion, up 4.8 percent ($184 million)
- domestic tourism expenditure was $28.5 billion, up 1.0 percent ($0.3 billion or $293 million)
- household tourism expenditure increased 0.1 percent ($31 million) to $21.2 billion
- business and government expenditure increased 3.7 percent ($262 million) to $7.3 billion
- total tourism value added as a proportion of GDP was 7.7 percent, the same as in 2024
- overseas visitor arrivals increased 4.3 percent to 3,320,687 people
- 38.8 million guest nights were spent in short-term commercial accommodation, a 2.7 percent decrease compared with the previous year
- the number of people visiting for education purposes (studying for less than 12 months) was 50,889, up 0.8 percent (420 students)
- total tourism employment increased 2.8 percent (8,874 people) to 327,888 people
- the number of people directly employed in tourism was 194,631, up 2.7 percent (5,205 people)
- direct tourism employment as a share of the total number of people employed in New Zealand was 6.8 percent.
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