Visitor Arrivals 2008

Visitor arrivals in 2008 reached a record of 585,031. This number represents an increase of 8.4% over the 2007 arrival figures of 539,881

Visitors from Australia recorded the highest number with 247,608 representing 42.3% of the total visitors. New Zealand followed with 100,018 or 17.1% ; the United States of America 63,667 or 10.9%; the United Kingdom 33,935 or 5.8%; Continental Europe 29,512 or 5% and Japan with 21,918 or 3.7%.

Visitor arrivals for July recorded the highest with 59,246 visitors. Visitor numbers for June, August, September, October and December also exceeded the 50,000th mark with 53,333, 58,013, 53,135, 50,118 and 50,276 respectively.

Arrivals from Australia peaked in September with arrival figure of 24,436, while visitors from New Zealand, the United States of America and Canada peaked in July with 13,629; 6,840 and 2,135 respectively, with visitor numbers from Japan [2,850] peaked in August.

The December 2008 average length of stay for visitors was 11.2 days with the Pacific Islanders staying the longest with 36.4 days. This was followed by Rest of Asia with 11.5 days; the United Kingdom 10.8 days; Canada 10.3 days while Australian visitors who make up more than 40% of the total visitors stayed 8.9 days. The American visitors stayed the shortest with 7.6 days. Other visitors from our major markets stayed between 7.6 to 36.4 days.

For the year 2008: