Overseas visitor arrivals in February were up substantially from a year earlier, according to new Stats NZ data. 

Even China, with a sluggish economy, provided many more visitors than in early 2023. 

Overseas visitor arrivals were 362,800 in February this year, up 94,100 year-on-year. 

The biggest changes were in arrivals from China, up 33,700, and the US, up 15,600. 

But overall visitor numbers for the month still weren’t at pre-Covid levels, reaching just 87 per cent of the arrival numbers recorded in February 2019, 

Of all the visitors in February, 31 per cent were from Australia, 16 per cent from the US, and 11 per cent from China. 

Meanwhile, arrivals of New Zealand residents were also up on February last year. 

By far the highest number of those were people returning from Australia, at 46 per cent of the total. 

Residents returning from China, India, the US and Fiji combined comprised another 23 per cent. 

Visitor arrivals in February were up more than 50 per cent on the same month a year ago. Photo / Dean Purcell, File 

Kiwi resident arrivals had now surpassed pre-pandemic levels, at 107 per cent of the arrivals recorded in February 2019. 

Stats NZ said overseas visitor arrivals were 3.11 million in the year to the end of February. 

That was up by 1.15 million on February 2023 year. 

Visitor numbers plunged when the pandemic arrived in early 2020 and only started creeping up slowly in February 2022. 

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 2.82 million in the February 2024 year, increasing by 1.11 million from the prior year. 

In February this year, 1.12 million border crossings were recorded. That included 580,600 arrivals and 534,500 departures. 

This story was originally published on the Herald, here