United States

The US is an important source market for New Zealand in terms of both total visitor arrivals and expenditure. And New Zealand seems to offer a very satisfying experience for US visitors - 94 per cent of them are highly satisfied with their holidays here, the highest satisfaction rating of all our visitors.

Despite a relatively short length of stay compared to most Europeans, two-thirds of Americans travel beyond the main tourist centres to the regions. The cruise market is a growing sector for New Zealand and a third of cruise passengers in 2008/09 were American.

One third of American holiday visitors are repeat visitors. Historically New Zealand has benefitted from its proximity to Australia for first-time visitors. Just under half of the 60 per cent of Americans that combine their trip to New Zealand with another country will go to Australia.

Since 1999, total visitor arrivals from the US have increased by around 17 per cent. However, from a peak of 225,000 visitors in 2006, they have dropped back in recent years due in part to the impacts of the global economic recession.

This is a trend that has been seen by many destinations, with outbound travel overall impacted heavily by the economic situation in the US. Despite this, the US is the world’s largest long-haul market, with US citizens making 30.5 million trips in 2008.

Tourism New Zealand’s major challenge in the US is lack of awareness. With advertising space in this country being very expensive, the organisation is focussing on building celebrity-status for New Zealand through high-impact PR work, supporting brand-building advertising activity.

Fast Facts: