International Travel 14 September

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 256,600 in July 2026, an increase of 20,100 from July 2025. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 8,200)
• China (up 5,400)
• United States (up 1,700).

The 134,900 overseas visitor arrivals from Australia in July 2026 were a record for a July month from that country, exceeding the previous record of 126,700 in July 2025.

The total number of overseas visitor arrivals in July 2026 was a record for a July month and 100.4 percent of the 255,600 in July 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

From early 2022, COVID-19 related restrictions on international travel were progressively relaxed in New Zealand. Since then, July 2026 is the first month overseas visitor arrivals have exceeded their pre-COVID level, when compared with the same month in 2019.

Of the 256,600 overseas visitor arrivals in July 2026:

• 53 percent were from Australia (compared with 50 percent in July 2019)
• 11 percent were from China (11 percent in July 2019)
• 6 percent were from the United States (7 percent in July 2019)
• 3 percent were from Japan (3 percent in July 2019)
• 3 percent were from the United Kingdom (3 percent in July 2019).

Monthly arrivals – New Zealand-resident travellers

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 317,000 in July 2026, a decrease of 5,000 from July 2025. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Samoa (up 1,700)
• Cook Islands (up 1,700)
• Fiji (up 1,200)
• Tonga (up 1,000)
• Australia (down 2,900)
• United Kingdom (down 2,700)
• United States (down 2,300).

There were record arrivals, for any month, of New Zealand-resident travellers from some destinations including the Cook Islands (14,300) and Indonesia (14,300).

There were record arrivals, for a July month, of New Zealand-resident travellers from some destinations including China (15,000), Samoa (9,100), and India (5,500).

The total number of New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in July 2026 was 93 percent of the 340,200 in July 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic).

Of the 317,000 New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in July 2026:

• 37 percent were from Australia (compared with 36 percent in July 2019)
• 9 percent were from Fiji (9 percent in July 2019)
• 5 percent were from the United Kingdom (6 percent in July 2019)
• 5 percent were from China (4 percent in July 2019)
• 5 percent were from the United States (8 percent in July 2019)
• 5 percent were from the Cook Islands (4 percent in July 2019)
• 5 percent were from Indonesia (4 percent in July 2019).

Annual arrivals

Overseas visitor arrivals were 3.69 million in the July 2026 year, an increase of 305,000 from the July 2025 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 135,000 to 1.59 million)
• China (up 76,000 to 321,000)
• Taiwan (up 14,000 to 65,000).

In the July 2026 year, there were record arrivals of overseas visitors for any year from some countries including Australia (1.59 million) and Singapore (66,000).

New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals were 3.09 million in the July 2026 year, an increase of 32,000 from the July 2025 year. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

• Australia (up 45,000 to 1.29 million)
• United States (down 30,000 to 135,000).

The 3.09 million New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in the July 2026 year were a record for a July year, exceeding the previous record of 3.07 million in 2019.

In the July 2026 year, there were record arrivals of New Zealand-resident travellers for any year from some destinations including the Cook Islands (118,000), Viet Nam (40,000), Tonga (30,000), and Sri Lanka (16,000).

The 1.29 million New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals from Australia were a record for a July year from that country, exceeding the previous record of 1.25 million in July 2019.

Border crossings

There were 1.14 million border crossings in July 2026, made up of 587,300 arrivals and 555,700 departures. In July 2025, there were 1.08 million border crossings.

July 2026 border crossings were 97 percent of the 1.18 million in July 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 July 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: August 2026 will be released on 14 October 2026.