Survey quality for the International Visitor Survey

Quality assurance metrics

The tables below contain results against quality assurance metrics that are monitored to reduce sampling error in the International Visitor Survey (IVS). These include:

• Relative Margin of Error (RME)
• Sample size
• Response rate.

See Survey error for more information about types of errors and how they apply to the IVS.

Survey error

Relative Margin of Error (RME)

The Relative Margin of Error represents the extent to which sampling error influences the mean value calculated. Given that we calculate RME at the 95% confidence level, if we ran the IVS 20 times, we would expect the true mean to be within one RME of the sample mean 19 times and outside one RME of the sample mean once.

The International Visitor Survey is designed to have an RME of:

• 5% of the total spending
• 10% for the top 6 markets: Australia, China, the USA, the UK, Germany, and Japan

The RME for the year ending December 2025 was 3.8%.

For the year ending December 2025, the larger sample size for annual data means results are available for Total (all countries), Australia, Asia, UK, Rest of Europe, Germany, USA, China, Canada, and Rest of World. While results for this quarter are for Rest of World, Asia, Australia, Rest of Europe, and Total.

RMEs are estimates and should be used as an indicator of accuracy when interpreting results, rather than definitive figures.

For the December 2025 quarter, the RMEs are as follows:

• Total: 6.9%
• Rest of World: 10.6%
• Australia: 11%
• Asia: 13.2%
• Rest of Europe: 14.5%

For the year ending December 2025, the RMEs are as follows:

• Total 3.8%
• Australia: 6.8%
• Asia: 8.5%
• UK: 9.0%
• Rest of Europe: 9.0%
• Germany: 11.5%
• China: 11.8%
• USA: 11.9%
• Canada: 13.3%
• Rest of World: 15.2%

Sample size for December quarter (October to December 2025)

The annual target sample size for 2026 financial year of 8,900 was exceeded with a total of 9,429.

The sample size for the December 2025 quarter was 2,476, an increase from the same quarter last year, and the overall response rate increased to 23% for this quarter.

Non-qualifier rates for the quarter (people approached for the survey who did not qualify for participation, primarily New Zealand residents and passengers in transit) increased from the September quarter 2025.

Quarterly level statistics have a higher margin of error than annual level statistics, we therefore advise caution when using and interpreting quarterly level results. The December 2022 quarter data, as the first after borders re-opened in July 2022, is an outlier. We advise caution when using December 2022 quarter data in either quarter to quarter or rolling annual data analysis.

The target overall sample size for the December quarter 2025 was designed to be the same as pre-COVID-19 (see Table 1). No country targets were put in place for the 2023/2024 year due to the uncertainty of flight schedules and consumer travel preferences. Country targets for the IVS will be reviewed once travel patterns are deemed stable.

More information on IVS survey methodology can be found in the Methodology Paper, which outlines the impact on the IVS due to changes in travel patterns following COVID-19. 

International Visitor Survey methodology

See the IVS Technical Description document for the detailed information about the survey.

IVS technical description [PDF, 738 KB]

Table 1: Achieved, and target, sample size for 2025/26 and pre COVID-19

Response rate for the quarter ended December 2025

The response rate represents the percentage of people who completed the survey as a proportion of the total surveys emailed out. For the quarter ended December 2025 the overall response rate was 23%.

Table 2 presents the response rates by country for the quarter ended December 2025.

Refusal and response rates remain broadly similar to pre-COVID ones for most countries. When the IVS resumed in mid-2022, most qualified visitors surveyed were from Australia, however representation of Australian residents is returning to pre-pandemic levels of around 31% of visitors in the sample.

Table 2: Response rates for top 8 international markets