Tourism is booming in New Zealand, from locals, and international visitors

Growth in overseas visitor numbers, along with New Zealanders exploring different parts of the country, saw tourism spending hit just over 39 billion dollars in the year ending in March, up almost three billion from 2017.

Both international and domestic expenditure rose one point four billion dollars on last year.

Stats NZ national accounts senior manager Susan Hollows says the increase in domestic spending is largely due to increases across the accommodation, hospitality, passenger transport, and retail sectors.

As for international tourists, she says additional airline and cruise capacity was the reason there had been an increase in spending in that market.