New Zealanders are out exploring the world again, in large numbers. Those travels are easy to see, with scores of young Kiwis documenting their overseas trips across social media. Principal Economist, Brad Olsen, asks the question – how many Kiwis are travelling, and where’s the most popular spot? Read

Our current economic environment is putting the tourism sector in a precarious position; tourism arrival recovery from several key international markets has declined, if not stagnated, over the last few months. Just this week, Stats NZ confirmed this week that the New Zealand economy has entered a t... Read

Demand for rental cars dried up over the COVID-19 pandemic, as tourist arrivals plummeted. With reduced demand, there was a swift decline in the size of the rental car fleet. Registrations of new rental cars have generally been trending upwards since 2021, but they still remain below pre-pandemic le... Read

Tourism has been a beacon of light in New Zealand’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. International tourist arrivals climbed over 2022, rebounding to 68% of pre-pandemic (same month in 2019) levels in December 2022. However, more recent data from Stats NZ suggests that this rebound is be... Read

Cruise ships have been making headlines again this summer for all the wrong reasons. Port calls have been cancelled because vessels are not meeting biosecurity standards. To make matters much worse, Cyclone Gabrielle has upended cruise ship plans in the Eastern North Island coast. Here we look at the importance of cruise ships to regional economies. Read

The number of rental cars in New Zealand has fallen strongly since February 2020, but the recovery of the tourism sector suggests there is a good opportunity for fleet growth. Strained household budgets indicate challenging demand conditions ahead for new car sales, but a boost to rental sales could... Read

The global economic outlook soured in early 2022, with the recovery being stifled by high inflation, continued supply chain disruptions, and rising geopolitical clashes. There’s a lot happening, and although this article doesn’t capture every piece of global economic news, it does set out some of the key global hurdles, and what they mean for the economic outlook. Read

Last month we looked at how quickly international travel will return as New Zealand’s borders reopen. Evidence from people movements between other countries suggests an eagerness to travel again, especially if there are no restrictions. For example, flight numbers between the US and Mexico are now sitting above pre-pandemic levels. Read

One of the starkest contrasts of pre- and post-pandemic life is how much less connected we are with overseas countries. International travel was obliterated almost everywhere in about a month when COVID-19 began its spread across the globe. Airline companies slashed their capacity in response, sending surplus planes to the desert where they won’t depreciate as quickly. The domestic tourism boom has helped local airline traffic to recover, although our ongoing isolation continues to negatively affect the tourism sector. Overseas evidence shows that as travel restrictions have eased, people are keen to get back out and explore, but activity has not returned to pre-pandemic levels yet. Read

It’s still early days, but it seems the Trans-Tasman bubble hasn’t been the silver bullet that many in the tourism sector had been hoping for. In the four weeks to 30 May, the number of arrivals to New Zealand on foreign passports was just 16% of 2019 levels for the same period. With virtually no arrivals from anywhere except Australia and the Cook Islands at the moment, these figures suggest that visitor arrivals from Australia are running at about 40-50% of their pre-COVID levels. Read