Source: Radio New Zealand
Rotorua Canopy Tours general manager Paul Button. (File photo) Andrew Warner
Tourists arrivals were the highest they’d been this March since before Covid-19, but as the fuel crisis continues tourism may take a hit.
Fuel prices have soared this year due to the conflict in the Middle East, making travel, both domestic and international, more expensive, but visitor arrivals in March totalled nearly 360,000 up nearly 15 percent from March 2025.
Stats NZ numbers showed overseas visitor arrivals hit 3.51 million in the year ended December 2025, up 6 percent from the prior year.
Tour operator Paul Button, general manager of Rotorua Canopy Tours and the Million Dollar Cruise in Queenstown, told Morning Report, there’d been a bit of a hit just recently through April going into May.
He said Rotorua had seen domestic support, but lower numbers from Australia and the United States which were usually two of the biggest markets.
Extreme inflation had also been a challenge recently, he said, noting it had been a tough six or so years.
“The challenge I guess for us, people are the products and we really gotta look after them.
“Last year we had a really good year… really excited for the future, but now it’s just more learning, more challenges.
He said the Million Dollar Cruise on Queenstown’s Lake Wakitipu had been 90 percent up in 2025.
Despite the fuel crisis, Button wasn’t too worried about the impact on tourism as he said many markets, including the Chinese market, saw Aotearoa as a safe place to go and so did many other markets.
“We’re seen as a safe destination to come to with all the chaos. Is a selling point, we’re seen as a really safe destination to visit.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand