Visitor surge boosts tourism

Visitor surge boosts tourism
(Image: Getty)
Staff reporters
Overseas visitor arrivals surged by more than a million last year as international tourism continues its slow recovery since borders reopened.There were 2.96m overseas visitors in the December 2023 year, Stats NZ said today, up by 1.52m from the 2022 year. New Zealand started reopening its international border in March 2022.Figures show there were 3.89m visitor arrivals in the year to December 2019.The biggest changes in annual arrivals in the year to December 2023 were from Australia (up 429,000 to 1.26m), the United States (up 227,000 to 337,...