International Travel 14 October

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 248,700 in August 2026, an increase of 18,400 from August 2025. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• China (up 6,500)
• Australia (up 5,800)
• United States (up 2,000)
• Malaysia (up 1,300)
• Taiwan (up 800)
• Indonesia (up 700)
• Japan (up 600)
• United Kingdom (down 600).

There were record arrivals, for an August month, of overseas visitors from some markets including Australia (125,600), Taiwan (5,800), and Singapore (4,600).

The total number of overseas visitor arrivals in August 2026 was 99 percent of the 251,100 in August 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 248,700 overseas visitor arrivals in August 2026:

• 51 percent were from Australia (compared with 49 percent in August 2019)
• 11 percent were from China (12 percent in August 2019)
• 6 percent were from the United States (6 percent in August 2019)
• 4 percent were from Japan (4 percent in August 2019).

Monthly arrivals – New Zealand-resident travellers

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 254,500 in August 2026, a decrease of 3,900 from August 2025. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Vanuatu (up 800)
• Viet Nam (up 600)
• China (up 500)
• United Kingdom (down 1,300)
• Indonesia (down 900)
• Australia (down 800)
• United States (down 700)
• Japan (down 500).

There were record arrivals, for an August month, of New Zealand-resident travellers from some destinations including China (9,100), India (5,500), the Philippines (3,900), and Singapore (2,100).

The total number of New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in August 2026 was 89 percent of the 284,500 in August 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 254,500 New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in August 2026:

• 41 percent were from Australia (compared with 40 percent in August 2019)
• 10 percent were from Fiji (8 percent in August 2019)
• 5 percent were from the Cook Islands (4 percent in August 2019)
• 5 percent were from the United Kingdom (6 percent in August 2019)
• 5 percent were from the United States (7 percent in August 2019).

Annual arrivals

Overseas visitor arrivals were 3.71 million in the August 2026 year, an increase of 307,000 from the August 2025 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 132,000 to 1.60 million)
• China (up 81,000 to 327,000)
• Taiwan (up 14,000 to 66,000).

In the August 2026 year, there were record arrivals of overseas visitors for any year from some markets including Australia (1.60 million), the United States (389,000), Taiwan (66,000), and Singapore (66,000).

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 3.08 million in the August 2026 year, an increase of 25,000 from the August 2025 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 35,000 to 1.29 million)
• China (up 10,000 to 173,000)
• United States (down 28,000 to 135,000).

The 3.08 million New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in the August 2026 year were a record for an August year, exceeding the previous record of 3.07 million in August 2019.

In the August 2026 year, there were record arrivals of New Zealand-resident travellers for any year from some destinations including India (117,000), Viet Nam (41,000), Tonga (30,000), and Sri Lanka (16,000).

There were record arrivals of New Zealand-resident travellers for an August year from some destinations including Australia (1.29 million), China (173,000), and the Cook Islands (117,000).

Border crossings

There were 1.04 million border crossings in August 2026, made up of 512,700 arrivals and 524,600 departures. In August 2025, there were 1.01 million border crossings.

August 2026 border crossings were 94 percent of the 1.10 million in August 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 August 2026, about 3 in 4 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

Infoshare is being replaced by Aotearoa Data Explorer. Stay informed and get support with this change by joining our customer group at [email protected].

Technical enquiries

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

ISSN 2624-2710

Next release

International travel: September 2026 will be released on 12 November 2026.