Visitor arrivals to New Zealand surpassed 3 million for the first time in the July 2015 year, Statistics New Zealand said today. The record-breaking 3,002,982 visitors this year was 7 percent higher than the July 2014 year. "The expanding market of Chinese holiday visitors, and steady growth of visitors from Australia, helped push the annual number of visitors to 3 million," population statistics senior manager Vina Cullum said. "New Zealand first reached 2 million visitors in 2002." Visitor arrivals in July 2015 numbered 208,000, up 6 percent from July 2014, and the highest for a July month. The biggest increases ... (full story)