Tourists arriving in New Zealand have become increasingly more attracted to self-drive tourism in recent years.
As New Zealand’s tourism market continues to make a strong recovery from the downfall of COVID, more and more travellers are choosing self-drive options as a way to see the country.
Following on from strong data that suggested a major increase in international visitor arrivals and visitor spend in April compared to last year, New Zealand has become one of the top destinations globally for self-drive tourists.
Self-drive travel remains the dominant mode of exploration for international visitors to New Zealand, with multi-destination itineraries gaining further ground in 2025 and 2026. Stats NZ data shows overseas visitor arrivals reached 3.58 million in the year to February 2026, up 229,000 year-on-year, with longer average stays reported across most major source markets. This pattern has reinforced demand for flexible rental arrangements that align with multi-region travel rather than fixed return trips.
The most common pattern involves picking up a vehicle in one city and dropping off in another. Visitors planning routes that combine the West Coast, the Southern Alps and the Otago region increasingly arrange one-way car rental in NZ to avoid backtracking, particularly when their air arrival and departure points differ. According to IBISWorld, the New Zealand passenger car rental and hiring industry reached NZD 2.3 billion in 2025, with one-way flexibility identified as a key factor in customer choice across both domestic and international segments.
The West Coast continues to be a major beneficiary of this travel pattern. Greymouth, the largest town on the South Island's West Coast, serves as the western anchor of the TranzAlpine train route and the gateway to Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, which attracted approximately 500,000 visitors annually in the period before COVID-19, according to Department of Conservation figures cited in regional reporting. Visitors arriving on the TranzAlpine or driving from Christchurch often turn to car rental in Greymouth to continue along the Great Coast Road, named by Lonely Planet among the top 10 coastal drives in the world.
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