The number of people visiting New Zealand in February was up 4% on the same month a year ago, with more Asian tourists arriving.
Statistics New Zealand figures show that 267,900 visitors arrived in New Zealand in February.
ASB economist Jane Turner says visitor arrivals have been showing signs of picking up, with arrivals in the three months to February up 1.2% on the previous quarter.
She says Australians are still coming over en masse and that is likely to continue with a low New Zealand dollar. The number of Asian visitors has increased, including more Japanese, Chinese and Koreans.
People who have to travel longer distances to get to New Zealand tend to stay longer and spend more, Ms Turner says, but unfortunately visitor arrivals from Europe and the United States tend to be fairly soft.
On an annual basis, 2.48 million visitors arrived in New Zealand in the year to February - 2% more than in the February 2009 year, and similar to the number who visited in the year to February 2008.
Visitors from Australia were up 12% for the year, but that was partly offset by large falls in visitors from Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom and China.
