New Zealand's looking to attract more tourists from Europe and the US, to reduce our reliance on Australians.

Stats NZ data shows almost 249-thousand overseas tourists arrived in August - 99 percent of 2019 levels.

The figure includes more Australians than in any August on record.

But Tourism Holdings Chief Executive Grant Webster told Ryan Bridge Chinese visitors have overtaken Australians as Queenstown's biggest tourism market - a significant shift.

He says that diversification is a good thing, as we're heavily reliant on Australia - with them making up around half of all arrivals.