International Visitor Survey data download

As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting tourism research, this page provides the International Visitor Survey (IVS) microdata.

Data for download: Quarter 3 2022 to quarter 2 2024

Data format

The data are in comma separated value (CSV) format as tables that are copies of the database views used by our analysts. This format is the most efficient way of organising the survey data as a database and is aimed at specialist researchers with statistical tools and skills.

International visitor survey data – Quarter 2 2024 [ZIP, 4.3 MB]

Data tables in the zip file

The tables contained in the zip file are listed below. The tables were updated in the September 2022 release to reflect changes to the survey questions. These changes are outlined in the methodology document. 

International Visitor Survey methodology

Data table Description
survey_main_header.csv Contains main survey details and all single-response question answers.
accommodation.csv Provides details of accommodation types used by respondent – multiple responses possible.
activities.csv Provides details of activities done by the respondent during their visit – multiple responses possible.
branding.csv Details of respondents’ familiarity and use of key tourism brands.
decision_making_process.csv Provides details of reasons why NZ appealed to the respondent – multiple responses possible.
ease_of_organisation.csv Details the extent to which it was easy for the respondent to organise trips.
environment.csv Provides details of the respondents’ consideration of the environment.
expenditure_by_payment_type.csv Contains the percentage breakdown of expenditure by payment type, such as cash, card, or digital payment.
expenditure_by_product.csv Provides respondents’ spending by category, such as accommodation, food and drink, or transport.
impact_of_covid19.csv Provides details of how COVID-19 affected planning and travel.
itinerary.csv Details of where the respondent stayed on the trip and the number of nights spent.
māori_cultural_experiences.csv Provides details of how respondents experienced Māori culture.
māori_cultural_sentiment.csv Details respondent sentiment on how they found Māori culture.
mobility.csv Details about difficulties doing certain activities due to health problems.
other_countries_visited.csv Details of other countries visited before and after NZ.
poor_experiences.csv Provides the frequency of poor environmental experiences respondents might have encountered.
secondary_purpose_of_visit.csv Provides details of secondary reasons for most recent trip to New Zealand. Multi response.
self_transport.csv Provides details of the transportation the respondent was responsible for.
transport_methods.csv Provides details of the different transportation methods used by the respondent.
travel_party.csv Provides details of the travel party the respondent was in for the trip.
visitor_satisfaction.csv Provides details of the respondent’s rating of their trip to New Zealand.
visitor_satisfaction reasons.csv Provides reasons for the respondent’s rating of their trip to New Zealand. Data available for 2024Q2 only. 
ease_of_organisation reasons.csv Outlines what respondents found difficult to organise in preparation for their trip. Data available for 2024Q2 only.

Changes in Q2 2024 microdata from previous release

Data table Description
Visitor_satisfaction reasons.csv New data table added on reasons for the respondent’s satisfaction rating of their trip to New Zealand. Data available for 2024Q2 only
ease_of_organisation reasons.csv New data table added on what respondents found difficult to organise in preparation for their trip. Data available for 2024Q2 only.

Changes in 2023 Q3 microdata from previous release

Data table Description
decision_making_process.csv New codes added: Seeing coverage of major events being held in New Zealand.
FIFA_womens_world_cup.csv New data table on temporary question added for Q3: Was attending the FIFA Women’s World Cup a main reason for you going to New Zealand?

Changes in 2023 Q2 microdata from previous release

Data table Description
itinerary.csv Aggregate nights to Territorial Authority Level. TA’s that include multiple RTO’s have been split accordingly.
survey_main_header.csv Decision making process: Open-text answers have been removed and will be coded for ease of analysis.

Changes in 2023 Q1 microdata from previous release

Data table Description
survey_main_header.csv Variable determining new or returning visitors has been recoded as first_nz_trip
expenditure_by_product.csv Renamed from expenditure_by_industry.csv, with outlier treatment applied on all components of spend included in the respondent’s final (treated) spend total, proportional to how much treated spend was scaled down. Components of spend that aren’t included in the treated spend are clearly marked beginning with “exc_” and do not have outlier treatment applied to it.

Changes in 2022 Q4 microdata from previous release

Data table Changes
All applicable tables Macrons have been added to Māori, Tairāwhiti etc. Note that all tables are UTF-8 encoded to allow for these special characters.
Some values have been recoded to align with how the answer appears in the questionnaire.
survey_main_header.csv Total spend has been removed to avoid confusion with the final spend variable “treated_spend”.
The length of stay for visitors who arrived by cruise ship now starts from the day they first disembarked at a New Zealand port.
Categorical variables that were left uncoded now have descriptive values: no_days_in_nz_unknown, no_selection_itinerary, incl_stay_other_country, other_purchase, psu
The vem_pop_weight used to weight up responses in the non-compulsory section has been recalculated, using the population that answered after IVS_ITI8 (the last compulsory question).
activities.csv One entry from Q3 2022 that visited “A national park” without specifying which national park in IVS_ACT2 was added.
itinerary.csv The night_num column has been renamed to “nights” to align with other microdata views.
other_countries_visited.csv 4 duplicate entries from Q3 2022 have been removed.

Microdata from previous releases

The microdata for the 2020 International Visitor Survey are contained in this zip file.

International visitor survey data – March 2020 [ZIP, 31 MB]

Creative Commons License(external link)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand License(external link)

Disclaimer

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) won't be held accountable for any error, inaccurate findings, or interpretation within the data. We're also not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of this information.

Last updated: 04 September 2024