Recently published by Stats NZ was the Tourism satellite account which presents information on tourism’s contribution to the New Zealand economy in terms of expenditure and employment.
The March 2021 data is significant as it captures the impact of COVID-19 on the sector. As expected the international spending was down by 91.5% from the previous year with the total spend falling by 37.3%.
The table and graph below show the drop off of international tourism in 2021. Domestic tourism did increase by 2.6% but was never going to absorb the drop in international spending of $16,195m.
Over the same period direct employment in tourism fell by 33.1% from 218,580 full-time employees to 146,295.
Tourism – direct contribution to GDP
2020 – $16.2bn – 5.5% of GDP
2021 – $8.5bn – 2.9% of GDP
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