Total tourist visitor days

IBISWorld forecasts the total number of tourist visitor days to increase by 3.4% in 2025-26, to 137.45 million days. Real household discretionary income is anticipated to expand in 2025-26, which will encourage New Zealanders to continue booking and undertaking domestic holidays. Outbound international travel by Australian residents is also expected to increase strongly in 2025-26, which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on tourism in New Zealand. Australians represent a key source of inbound tourism, and greater demand from this market will drive growth in international tourist visitor days.

Historically, domestic residents accounted for the majority of total tourist visitor days. For example, domestic tourists made up just under 65% of total visitor days in 1999-2000. However, strong rises in inbound tourism over the past two and a half decades (excluding the pandemic) have reduced this share. New Zealand's strengthening reputation as a tourist destination and the ongoing expansion of overseas airlines into the local market have been boosting inbound arrival numbers over this time. Key inbound markets include Australia, China, the United Kingdom and the United States. However, this drastically increased over the course of the pandemic, due to international travel restrictions, causing domestic residents' share of visitor days to skyrocket to an estimated 94.1% in 2020-21. In the years since, the return of international travel has driven this share back down to the long-run average, with domestic residents expected to account for 47.9% of total visitor days in 2025-26. Overall, IBISWorld forecasts the total number of tourist visitor days to rise slightly at a compound annual rate of 16.5% over the five years through 2025-26.