MBIE has come under fire from tourism leaders after wiping $910m off international tourist spending.
The terms of reference for Stats NZ’s review of MBIE’s International Visitor Survey have been released.
An economist with detailed knowledge of MBIE’s tourism data collection has come out criticising it as “next to useless” after this week’s Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) showed a fall in international tourism spend.
MBIE is to have its top tourism data collection, the Tier 1 International Visitor Survey, reviewed by Stats NZ because of concerns over its accuracy.
Stats NZ has begun an investigation into the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s International Visitor Survey
National guest nights this February were relatively flat, down 0.4 percent on February 2016, according to Statistics NZ.
Tourists continued to flock to New Zealand in record numbers in the year to February.
International guest nights hit a record 2m in January, up 6.9% on the same month last year.
North Island guest nights drove growth of 3.4% in accommodation in December 2016 compared to the same period last year, according to Statistics NZ.
International visitors continued to boost guest-night numbers, particularly for motels, in November, Statistics NZ said yesterday.