Glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms and measures used across Waypoint.

Guest arrivals: Guests checking in to commercial accommodation during the month.
Guest nights: Nights spent by all guests in commercial accommodation. Two guests staying three nights is six guest nights.
Net Promoter Score (NPS): How likely visitors are to recommend New Zealand, on a 0–10 scale. NPS is the share scoring 9–10 minus the share scoring 0–6, so it ranges from −100 to +100.
Occupancy rate: The share of available rooms or stay units that were occupied.
Percentage points (pp): The simple difference between two percentages. Occupancy moving from 60% to 63% is a rise of 3 pp (or 5%).
Region: One of New Zealand’s 16 regional council areas, such as Otago or Waikato.
Regional NPS: A visitor’s NPS score attributed to each region in proportion to the nights they spent there. Someone who spent 7 of 10 nights in Auckland contributes 70% of their score to Auckland. Trips with no nights are excluded.
RTO area: The area covered by a Regional Tourism Organisation, the body that promotes tourism in that part of the country. RTO areas are smaller than, and do not always line up with, regions.
Spend: Money spent by visitors on goods and services, in New Zealand dollars. What is included differs slightly between datasets; see About the data.
Tourism Strength Index (TSI): A Waypoint score comparing regions. It averages three percentages: the region’s share of national visitor spend (MRTE), its share of national visitor days (TV&F), and its accommodation occupancy rate (ADP), each over the latest 12 months.
Unique visitors: Distinct people present in an area in a month. Each person counts once, however many times they visit.
Visiting friends & relatives (VFR): Trips where the main purpose was to see friends or family.
Visitor days: Total days visitors spent in an area. One visitor staying three days counts as three visitor days.
Visitor nights: Nights visitors stayed overnight in an area. A guide to accommodation demand.
Year ending (YE): A total for the 12 months up to and including the named month or quarter. “YE Jun 2026” covers July 2025 to June 2026.

For where each dataset comes from, see About the data.