Tourism Volumes and Flows
26 February 2026
MBIE
The supplier has remediated the affected data to published standards, however additional caution is advised when analysing daily data for this period. During production of the January 2026 Tourism Volumes and Flows release, the supplier identified an upstream hardware failure within the telecommunications network monitoring equipment. This equipment collects aggregated signals used as input to the Volumes and Flows model.
The technical failure resulted in significantly lower reported counts for the week of 17–23 January, with non-uniform impacts across locations and population segments. If left unaddressed, this would have created an artificial dip in visitor volumes during a period of high activity.
Instead of suppressing the affected week, the supplier undertook a remediation process. The corrected outputs have been validated against event schedules and regional intelligence.
Two individual daytime periods (17 and 22 January) remain excluded from daily reporting. Higher level aggregates (weekly and monthly) remain representative, as they are calculated from available days, although precision for that week is slightly reduced.
Stakeholders are advised to exercise additional caution when conducting analysis at a daily level for 17–23 January.
Peak daytime: This graph shows daily peak daytime visitors across different RTO (Regional Tourism Organisation) areas and TA (Territorial Authorities). Peak daytime represents the maximum number of visitors estimated to be present in a specific area during any single hour between 10:00 AM and 9:00 PM. Each colour line represents destination level. Use the buttons on the top menu bar to switch between visitor segments and destination level.
Weekly Visitor Days: This line chart shows the number of visitor days across different RTOs. Visitor days are the sum of days that visitors spend at a region. Refer to the user guides for more details. Use the buttons on the top menu to switch view by visitor segments. Line colours show the levels of visitor activity from week to week for each RTO, allowing comparison between destinations.
Monthly unique visitor counts: The bar chart shows the monthly number of unique visitors for each RTO. It presents how many individuals visited each region at least once during the month, no matter how often they returned or how long they stayed. The bars show the split between domestic and international unique visitors. Note: when visitors travel or visit more than one RTO in the same month, they will be counted once for each RTO.
Visitor days by origin: This horizontal bar chart shows the monthly visitor days for each destination, broken down by visitor origin. Each bar represents destinations as RTOs, and the colour segments show the origin breakdowns, either from New Zealand Regional Councils or nationality groups for international visitors. This illustrates destinations’ market mix and visitors’ preferences.
The Tourism Volumes and Flows series, developed by Vistr Ltd and funded by MBIE, provides detailed insights into overall visitor activity across Aotearoa New Zealand. The series delivers granular estimates of the number of visitors present within a destination (volumes) alongside breakdowns by visitor origin (flows), providing the sector with low-latency indicators of overall destination performance and the visitation patterns of key markets.
The underlying model uses a blend of anonymised human mobility data and national population and travel statistics. This allows us to provide granular estimates consistently and at scale, with high resolution and minimal lead time.
The series replaces and expands upon the Monthly Unique Regional Population Estimates (MURPEs), published from September 2022 to October 2023, following sector consultation and recommendations from the Tourism Data Leadership Group.