Photo taken on Nov. 29, 2020 shows a view of Chatham Islands, one of the remote destinations in New Zealand. (Photo by Lisa Li/Xinhua)
WELLINGTON, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- New Zealanders' overseas spending in the September 2020 quarter fell almost 1.7 billion NZ dollars (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) or 84 percent compared with the same time last year, as travel slowed to a trickle because of COVID-19, Stats NZ said on Wednesday.
Spending by New Zealand travelers and students while overseas was 324 million NZ dollars in the September 2020 quarter, compared with nearly 2 billion NZ dollars this time last year. This includes spending on things like hotels, food, tuition fees, and rent (travel services imports), but excludes international airfares (which fall under transportation services).
"Historically, New Zealanders take more overseas trips at this time of the year, to escape the winter, but this year the numbers are much lower than usual," international statistics senior manager Peter Dolan said.
"This coincided with New Zealanders spending more on nesting at home, buying things like furniture and hardware."
Meanwhile, New Zealand's inbound tourism tumbled amid the epidemic. Border restrictions are cutting a swathe through international visitor arrivals which showed a record drop of 1.4 million from April to September 2020. Overseas visitor arrivals were down by 253,200 to 8,600 in September 2020, compared with September 2019. The biggest changes were in arrivals from Australia (down 128,500) and China (down 27,300).
For the fiscal year that ended March 2019, tourism generated 16.2 billion NZ dollars, or 5.8 percent of the country's GDP. The indirect value added from industries supporting tourism generated an additional 11.2 billion NZ dollars, or 4 percent of GDP.
In the first six months of the year, New Zealand's economy contracted 13.4 percent as a result of the strict lockdown. (1 New Zealand dollar equals 0.68 U.S. dollar) Enditem
