December was the busiest month for overseas visitors arriving in New Zealand in 2025, with 14.3% of the year's arrivals, and June the quietest, with 5.3%. January and December together accounted for 24.9%. These figures count arrivals, not how long visitors stayed.
New Zealand, month by month
- Two busiest months
- Other months
When is New Zealand busiest with international visitors, and when is it quietest?
December had the most overseas visitor arrivals in 2025, with 14.3% of the year's total. June had the fewest, with 5.3%. That makes December 2.7 times as busy as June.1
Seven months each had less than an average month's share of 8.3%: April, May, June, July, August, September and October.
Where do New Zealand's international visitors come from?
The largest group came from Australia, with 43.4% of overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand in the year to December 2025, followed by the United States (11.0%) and China (7.5%).2
| Country of residence | Share |
|---|---|
| Australia | 43.4% |
| United States | 11.0% |
| China | 7.5% |
| United Kingdom | 5.5% |
| India | 2.3% |
Shares are of overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand in the year to December 2025. The year to December 2025 matches the months above.
What exactly is counted?
Stats NZ counts overseas visitor arrivals: overseas residents arriving in New Zealand for a stay of less than 12 months. Stats NZ publishes these as estimates.1
Other countries count arrivals differently, which is why we do not rank New Zealand against the others on the overview page.
June or September? May or October?
June was quieter than September, at 5.3% against 7.1%.
May was quieter than October, at 5.4% against 7.5%.
These compare months at similar distances from the middle of the year. They say nothing about weather, which we have not measured.
What these figures cannot tell you
Arrivals are not crowds. A month with many arrivals can still feel quiet if visitors stay briefly or spread out, and a national total cannot show how busy one city, park or beach is.
They say nothing about length of stay, weather or prices. This page has no weather or price data.
They are one year. These are 2025 figures, and patterns shift from year to year.
The full year
| Month | Share of year | Arrivals |
|---|---|---|
| January (one of the two busiest months) | 10.5% | 370,238 |
| February | 10.1% | 354,408 |
| March | 8.9% | 311,808 |
| April | 7.6% | 267,271 |
| May | 5.4% | 190,593 |
| June | 5.3% | 186,753 |
| July | 6.7% | 236,550 |
| August | 6.6% | 230,292 |
| September | 7.1% | 248,571 |
| October | 7.5% | 262,731 |
| November | 9.9% | 347,577 |
| December (one of the two busiest months) | 14.3% | 502,640 |
Total for 2025: 3,509,432 overseas visitor arrivals. The two busiest months are marked.
Key takeaways
- June was the quietest month for overseas visitors arriving in New Zealand in 2025, with 5.3% of the year's arrivals.
- January and December were the busiest, with 24.9% between them.
- June was quieter than September, at 5.3% against 7.1%.
- What we would skip: comparing these percentages with another country's. Each country counts arrivals its own way.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from Stats NZ, a government statistics body. We downloaded the monthly figures and calculated the shares and comparisons ourselves. See how we research.
- Source: Stats NZ, International travel: July 2026, table 2 (estimated short-term travel, overseas visitor arrivals), January–December 2025. Read it. Accessed 22 September 2026. This work is based on/includes Stats NZ's data which are licensed by Stats NZ for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
- Stats NZ, International travel: December 2025, table 4 (overseas visitor arrivals by country of last permanent residence, year ended December 2025). Read it. Accessed 22 September 2026. This work is based on/includes Stats NZ's data which are licensed by Stats NZ for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Changes we made. The monthly shares, rankings of months and comparisons are our own calculations from the published counts. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place, so they may not add exactly.