Record-breaking summer projected for Christchurch Airport

Tourism New Zealand said they were pleased to see growth in the right direction.

"We also look closely at the holiday visitor cohort that is most impacted by our marketing efforts. In August 2025, holiday arrivals landed at 96% recovered compared with August 2019. This is hard on the heels of a milestone for holiday visitor arrivals in July 2025, as they surpassed pre-COVID levels for the first time," a Tourism New Zealand spokesperson said.

Christchurch Airport Airline Development Manager, Jess Cribbens, said they were seeing similar trends locally.

"In 2024, about 13% of all international tourists came through Christchurch. If we compare those to pre-COVID, we're just shy of where we were at 14%. But in 2025, we really expect to exceed those numbers."

Cribbens pinpoints the reason for the airport's success being its strong ties to international airlines - something she specialises in.

"What we've done is we've partnered with some strong, genuine relationships. We partnered with people who wanna stay here."

Cribbens said roughly 50% of the boost was new arrivals.

Stats NZ Tourism Satellite Account data from February this year showed the Tourism sector was the second largest export earner in New Zealand. International travellers in the 12 months to March 2024, spent $16.9 billion in New Zealand, nearing the $17.2 billion spent in 2019.

Business Canterbury Chief Executive, Leeann Watson, said the more tourists we get into Christchurch, will greater impact the local economy.

"We've seen huge growth in international connections and flights coming into Christchurch in the last six to 12 months, which is a really great signal of Christchurch being a crucial international market.

"It has massive flow on impacts to the hotels, motels, bars, restaurants, the retailers.  Of course, often what they do is they'll stay here for a few days and then they'll go further south."

KIWINZ Gifts Ōtautahi owner, Frankie Chan, has been in business since last December. He said the boost in visitors will bring a much-needed hit of customers into his souvenir shop.

"Its really exciting to see more customer travelling from Aus, China, and also Europe."

It’s a stark comparison to how quiet the past winter months have been.

"I remember one of the days we start from 10 o'clock in the morning but until 12 we only got three customers walking in but two of them were suppliers."

Promoting Christchurch as a winter destination, just as much as a summer one, could aid this problem.

"That’s about telling our story and making sure we actually promote all that there is to see and do here in Christchurch, rather than Christchurch just being a gateway to the rest of the South Island," said Watson.

Watson said a noticeable difference will be felt in the city centre.

"Most times when tourists come into any city, you know, they tend to go into the central city that's, you know, a real draw card for, for tourists."

Chan said the reason he chose Christchurch as the destination to open his shop was the future he sees here.

"You see the people love coming to Christchurch. I see that every year we have tourists coming more."

An uptick in premium travellers is also been seen through the airport.

"We've seen that across all of our airlines. It's constant feedback we are getting through Emirates, through Singapore Airlines for United Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and China Southern. So they are filling the front of their plane," said Cribbens.

She said they are seeing it so strongly, United Airlines has increased capacity on their larger aircraft to fulfil that demand. 

In June, Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment announced the government's Tourism Growth Roadmap. The strategy included a long-term plan for the tourism sector, and how it was going to increase it's value.

The end of stage one is set to be completed by 2026, with the goal to return overseas visitor numbers by pre-COVID levels at least (3.89 million).

To reach this, the roadmap gave Tourism New Zealand $13.5 million for international marketing in our core markets of USA, China and Australia. $6 million was given to target emerging markets like India and Southeast Asia. $3 million was given to boost business events.

Tourism New Zealand told Metro News the funding allocation was "not designated to one campaign, but is being used to fund a range of activity across our markets."

They said the funding was intended to bolster new and existing campaigns across the core and emerging markets.

The 100% Pure New Zealand global campaign, and partnerships with celebrities from India and China, have made up parts of the funding so far.

Cribbens said any investment is great, however said there were "many factors that play into making a season of success."

"That comes down to airlines and their capacity, so we've been really fortunate that a lot of our airline partners are starting to get aircraft back, and they're choosing to put that down in Christchurch.

With those core markets bouncing back post-COVID, Cribbens said the funding puts New Zealand on a silver platter compared to other countries.

Watson hoped some of the investment would boost Christchurch further.

 "We often say if you haven't been to Christchurch in the last five years, you haven't been to Christchurch. It is a new city.

 "Most of the tourism images that are used offshore are actually of the South Island, so we need to do more and more to draw people into Christchurch and into the South Island."