Australian, Chinese visitors drive "exceptional" New Zealand tourism figures

Visitors from Australia and China helped drive a record number of arrivals in New Zealand as the country headed into winter last month, figures from the government statistics agency showed Tuesday.

Visitor arrivals numbered were up 9 percent to 177,000 in June, and rose by 7 percent in the year ending June to 2.99 million, according to Statistics New Zealand.

"China, Australia, and the United States contributed the biggest visitor increases for both the June month and year," population statistics manager Vina Cullum said in a statement.

"These three countries are our biggest visitor sources, supplying 61 percent of all arrivals in the June 2015 year."

Visitors from China New Zealand's second biggest tourism market were up 28.5 percent year on year to 16,176 last month, and surged by 30.3 percent in the year ending June to more than 313,000.

Australia was the biggest market with numbers up 4 percent in the June year to almost 1.29 million.

Chief executive of the government's Tourism New Zealand agency, Kevin Bowler, said heading into the southern winter months with such strong growth was exceptional.

"It means more jobs and economic value, not just in the peak summer period but with benefits felt throughout the year," Bowler said in a statement.

He attributed the continued strong growth from China to increased air capacity from the two direct air carriers, China Southern Airlines and Air New Zealand. Endi