Aussie visitor numbers climb

The latest Statistics New Zealand figures on visitor numbers show annual tourist arrivals up 4 per cent in the year to August. New Zealand is attracting ever more Australians, with a 12 per cent increase in the month of August following a 15 per cent increase the previous month, compared with the same months in 2006. Australia is New Zealand's largest visitor market, contributing a quarter of all tourism dollars, with Britain the second largest tourism earner. But the next three key markets – the United States, Japan and Korea – which collectively accounted for 24 per cent of annual tourism earnings in 2006, declined between 6 and 19 per cent in the latest figures.
The US and Japan were both locked in a downward trend, with Japan's figures declining month on month for more than two years and American numbers down in six of the past eight months.