As a part of its tourism recovery initiatives post-Covid, Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) says that targetting high-quality visitors is more crucial than ever to promote the nation's recovery in the face of challenging economic climate, robust airline recovery, and aggressive worldwide competition.

With tourism gradually recovering from the pandemic induced stagnation, 890,000 tourists visited New Zealand between December 2022 and February 2023, says Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) in a press statement. This is 66 pc of what was recorded before the Covid-19 outbreak. Holiday tourists made up 385,000 of these arrivals, or 53 pc of pre-Covid levels. TNZ says that summer was a mixed bag for many regions, particularly those devastated by catastrophic weather events, despite being a positive step in the recovery.

In the statement, TNZ adds that the most recent vacation arrivals numbers for March 2023 indicate that New Zealand is at 55 pc pre-pandemic levels. The preference for New Zealand among those who are actively contemplating coming is still growing and at a high level, at 44.8 pc. Targetting high-quality visitors is more crucial than ever to promote New Zealand’s recovery because of the challenging economic climate, robust airline recovery, and aggressive worldwide competition, it adds.

TNZ says that in FY24, it will focus on growing the pool of those considering New Zealand for their next holiday to support ongoing sector recovery. The government has decided that Tourism New Zealand will return to its core role of promoting New Zealand to international visitors now borders are open, it adds.