Chinese, Australian visitors help New Zealand hit record milestone in tourism

The annual number of overseas visitors to New Zealand passed the 3 million mark for the first time in the year ending July, driven by a surge in arrivals from China and Australia, the government statistics agency said Friday.

The number of visitors was up 7 percent from the July 2014 year to a record 3,002,982, according to Statistics New Zealand.

"The expanding market of Chinese holiday visitors, and steady growth of visitors from Australia, helped push the annual number of visitors to 3 million," population statistics senior manager Vina Cullum said in a statement.

"New Zealand first reached 2 million visitors in 2002."

Australia and China were the New Zealand's two biggest markets for overseas visitors.

Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism John Key said the figures were a huge milestone for the tourism industry.

Visitors in the July year had spent a total of 8.7 billion NZ dollars (5.76 billion U.S. dollars), up 28 percent on the previous 12 months, Key said in a statement.

"So today we have more people coming to New Zealand than ever, spending more and staying for longer, helping boost our economy and creating more jobs and opportunities for New Zealanders," said Key.

Tourism was directly responsible for 94,100 jobs within the industry and supported a further 72,700 in the year to March 2014.

"Already, tourism is our second-largest export earner and the industry continues to go from strength to strength," he said. Endi