It’s Friday, and the week ends on two sets of Stats NZ numbers pulling in opposite directions. Five items.
September brought more overseas visitors than any September before it, including 2019
Stats NZ counted 273,000 overseas visitor arrivals in September, up 24,400 on a year earlier and 104 percent of the previous September record of 261,800, set in 2019. China supplied the biggest monthly gain (up 12,800), ahead of Australia (up 7,100), with Taiwan and Japan each up 1,700. Australia, China, Taiwan and Singapore all set September records of their own.
Over the year to September, arrivals reached 3.74 million, up 310,000. Australia (up 124,000 to 1.61 million) and China (up 94,000, or 38 percent, to 340,000) account for about 70 percent of that growth between them. The United States reached 390,000 for the year, its highest on record, as did India at 83,000. Taiwan rose 15,000 to 68,000.
The mix has hardly moved from 2019: Australians made up 53 percent of September’s visitors against 51 percent then, Chinese visitors 12 percent against 11, Americans 6 percent in both years. The recovery has been a recovery of the old shape, not a new one, which matters for anyone who rebuilt product around a different market and is still waiting for it.
Source: Stats NZ, International travel: September 2026
Stat of the day
273,000
Overseas visitor arrivals in September 2026, the first September to beat the 2019 record of 261,800. (Stats NZ)
Air New Zealand grows into Taiwan, Houston and Shanghai with existing routes, not new ones
A day after the September numbers, Air New Zealand set out its northern summer 2027 schedule, and the headline is more seats on routes it already flies. Auckland to Taipei goes from three to five flights a week from late September, which the airline puts at about 25 percent more Taiwan capacity in October. Houston becomes daily from next September, on a 787-9 replacing the five-weekly 777. Shanghai capacity rises 9 percent over the season, with daily flights in April, July, September and October, and Vancouver goes to nine a week in July. Christchurch to Singapore, three a week, now stays year-round.
Overall international seats are up 4 percent on this year between late March and late October. The airline said no new routes were coming, in line with chief executive Nikhil Ravishankar’s line in June that it would not add capacity simply because that is how airlines have traditionally flexed their muscle. The Taipei increase lands in the same year as Starlux’s filed Taipei-Sydney-Auckland service, so Taiwan capacity is growing from more than one direction at once.
Source: NZ Herald
Domestic hospitality spending fell for a third straight month in October, and is down 4.4 percent on a year ago
Stats NZ’s card data for October shows the other side of the ledger. Hospitality spending fell $23 million, or 1.6 percent, on September, seasonally adjusted. Fuel was the only retail category to rise, up $25 million or 4.8 percent, and total card spending across all industries fell $120 million (1.2 percent). The non-retail category that includes travel and tour arrangement fell $72 million, or 3.1 percent.
ASB economist Yen Nguyen said hospitality spending had now fallen three months running and was 4.4 percent lower than a year earlier. She added that fuel spending rose by less than pump prices did, which suggests people are driving less where they can. That is the domestic road trip, the backbone of most regional operators’ shoulder season, being priced down in real time. ASB expects a gradual recovery to take hold during 2027.
Source: Stats NZ, Electronic card transactions: October 2026; interest.co.nz
Kāpiti Coast Airport now has a closing date: 30 November
Wednesday’s briefing reported that the airport’s owners had a conditional sale requiring the airport to close first, with no announcement yet. The date is now public. Newstalk ZB reports operations are set to cease on 30 November, before the buyer takes over. The NZ Herald reports that Sounds Air will switch its Kāpiti service to Wellington.
Kāpiti Coast mayor Janet Holborow has asked the Government to step in, arguing the region needs a back-up to Wellington Airport in an emergency, and called the 1995 sale of the airport a mistake. She also pointed out that the council cannot simply vote down a change of zoning: a rezoning request from the landowner has to go through the full Resource Management Act process, and the council cannot buy the land or fund the airport itself. For anyone who sold Kāpiti as a quieter way into the lower North Island, the practical answer from December is Wellington or Palmerston North.
Source: Newstalk ZB via NZCity; NZ Herald; Kāpiti Coast District Council via Scoop
27 November is shaping up as a two-strike day
The second notified 24-hour strike by Auckland Airport’s emergency services team, covered here on Wednesday, falls on 27 November. The same day, the Professional Firefighters’ Union has notified the first of a series of 10-hour strikes at Fire and Emergency New Zealand, which is separate from the airport’s own fire service.
RNZ has seen FENZ contingency plans asking the Defence Force to crew fire trucks at up to 20 priority stations, subject to the Defence Minister’s approval. Under those plans, ladder trucks, medical co-responses, cliff rescues and hazardous substance callouts would not be covered during the strike window. Operators running high-rise accommodation, cliff-edge or coastal activities, or anything that relies on a fast rescue response may want to look at what they would do differently for those ten hours.
Source: RNZ
Coming up
- 22 November: World Triathlon Cup Tauranga, Mount Maunganui
- 24 November: notified 24-hour strike by Auckland Airport’s emergency services team
- 27 November: second Auckland Airport emergency services strike; first 10-hour strike by FENZ career firefighters; official election result due
- 30 November: Kāpiti Coast Airport set to cease operations
- 1 December: Sarah O’Donnell takes over as chief executive of Destination Queenstown and Lake Wānaka Tourism
- 23 March 2027: Starlux’s filed start date for Taipei-Sydney-Auckland
- September 2027: Air New Zealand’s Houston service goes daily on the 787-9, and Auckland-Taipei moves to five a week from late in the month
That's today's briefing. The Shoulder Season is back every weekday morning.