Ryan Bridge: International spending is up, but is it really a win?

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Jun 3, 2025 · 2m · transcript

Tourism mojo.

Louise Upston fired off an enthusiastic press release last night.

"International visitor spend on the up” it proclaimed.

New data, which we get from the International Visitor Survey, showed a 10% jump in spending on the previous year.

Sounds impressive, right?

Sounds like we’re getting somewhere. Finally shaking off the Covid cobwebs.

But this is where we start to see the spin doctors earning their keep.

Let’s not forget we’ve been dealing with inflation outside the band over that year. Which means stuff costs more - restaurants and hotels included.

So, are we actually getting…