International Travel 14 July

International travel covers the number and characteristics of overseas visitors and New Zealand resident travellers (short-term movements) entering or leaving New Zealand.

Key facts

Monthly arrivals – overseas visitors
Monthly arrivals – New Zealand-resident travellers
Annual arrivals
Border crossings

Monthly arrivals – overseas visitors

Overseas visitor arrivals were 203,300 in May 2026, an increase of 12,700 from May 2025. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• China (up 4,400)
• Australia (up 3,300)
• Malaysia (up 1,900)
• Singapore (up 1,700)
• Taiwan (up 1,000).

The increase in visitor arrivals from China coincided with an Immigration New Zealand trial that allows eligible Chinese passport holders to travel to New Zealand from Australia without needing a New Zealand visitor visa. The 12-month trial started in November 2025. Visa free travel from Australia to New Zealand for Chinese visitors on the Immigration New Zealand website has more information on the trial.

The total number of overseas visitor arrivals in May 2026 was 93 percent of the 219,300 in May 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 203,300 overseas visitor arrivals in May 2026:

• 44 percent were from Australia (compared with 42 percent in May 2019)
• 10 percent were from China (13 percent in May 2019)
• 8 percent were from the United States (8 percent in May 2019)
• 4 percent were from India (3 percent in May 2019)
• 3 percent were from Singapore (2 percent in May 2019)
• 3 percent were from the United Kingdom (3 percent in May 2019).

Monthly arrivals – New Zealand-resident travellers

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 227,100 in May 2026, a decrease of 11,900 from May 2025. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Viet Nam (up 600)
• United States (down 3,100)
• United Kingdom (down 1,600)
• Indonesia (down 1,200)
• India (down 700)
• China (down 600).

There were record arrivals, for a May month, of New Zealand-resident travellers from some destinations including Fiji (16,200), Japan (9,000), and the Philippines (5,700).

The total number of New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in May 2026 was 97 percent of the 235,200 in May 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 227,100 New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in May 2026:

• 44 percent were from Australia (compared with 43 percent in May 2019)
• 7 percent were from Fiji (7 percent in May 2019)
• 5 percent were from China (5 percent in May 2019)
• 5 percent were from the United States (8 percent in May 2019)
• 4 percent were from the Cook Islands (4 percent in May 2019)
• 4 percent were from Japan (2 percent in May 2019).

Annual arrivals

Overseas visitor arrivals were 3.66 million in the May 2026 year, an increase of 286,000 from the May 2025 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 132,000 to 1.572 million)
• China (up 62,000 to 312,000)
• Taiwan (up 15,000 to 65,000).

The 1.572 million visitor arrivals from Australia were a record for any year from that country, exceeding the previous record of 1.569 million in the April 2026 year.

There were 387,000 visitor arrivals from the United States, a record for a May year from that country.

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 3.10 million in the May 2026 year, an increase of 73,000 from the May 2025 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 71,000 to 1.30 million)
• China (up 13,000 to 172,000)
• Japan (up 10,000 to 94,000)
• United States (down 28,000 to 140,000).

The 3.10 million total New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in the May 2026 year were a record for a May year, exceeding the previous record of 3.06 million in 2019.

There were record arrivals, for a May year, of New Zealand-resident travellers from some destinations including Australia (1.30 million), China (172,000), India (116,000), and the Cook Islands (115,000).

Border crossings

There were 937,700 border crossings in May 2026, made up of 438,100 arrivals and 499,600 departures. In May 2025 there were 931,900 border crossings.

May 2026 border crossings were 95 percent of the 983,600 in May 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital arrival card

A digital arrival card (New Zealand Traveller Declaration – NZTD) became available to travellers entering New Zealand from mid-July 2023, alongside the existing paper arrival card. Christchurch and Wellington airports were the first to use the NZTD, followed by Queenstown airport in late July 2023 and Auckland airport in late August 2023.

Data from July 2023 onwards therefore includes a growing proportion of digital responses. In May 2026, about 7 in 10 of all traveller arrivals completed the digital NZTD.

The implementation of the NZTD has no impact on the range of statistical information available to international travel and migration customers.

Early and provisional international travel data

Each week, Stats NZ releases early and provisional international travel statistics – International travel (provisional) – to facilitate analysis of New Zealand’s inbound and outbound tourism sectors.

This includes:

• weekly travel data for short-term overseas visitor and New Zealand-resident arrivals
• arrivals and departures data based solely on border crossings into and out of New Zealand
• stock estimates of visitors in New Zealand and New Zealand residents travelling overseas, based on arrivals and departures.

More data

Use Infoshare to access time-series data for international travel and migration:

Subject category: Tourism
Group: International travel and migration – ITM

Definitions and metadata

International travel – DataInfo+ gives general methodology used to produce international travel and migration statistics.

International travel concepts – DataInfo+ gives definitions of terms used in this release.

Subnational short-term NZ-resident arrivals – DataInfo+ gives methodology for determining the New Zealand-location information in short-term New Zealand-resident arrival records.

Infoshare is being replaced by Aotearoa Data Explorer

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Technical enquiries

Travel, migration, and housing team
[email protected]
04 931 4600

ISSN 2624-2710

Next release

International travel: June 2026 will be released on 14 August 2026.