27 September 2006

Fewer Brits, but more visitors flock to New Zealand

There were 155,700 short-term overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand in August 2006, up 5,000 (3 percent) on August 2005, Statistics New Zealand has announced.

More visitors came from Australia and China in August 2006, but fewer from Japan and the United Kingdom, compared with the previous August.

Seasonally adjusted monthly visitor arrivals were up 3 percent in August 2006, following a decrease of 4 percent in July 2006.

In the year ended August 2006, there were 2.381 million visitor arrivals, down 16,200 (1 percent) from the August 2005 year.

New Zealand residents departed on 163,800 short-term overseas trips in August 2006, down 7,900 (5 percent) from August 2005. There were fewer trips to Australia and Japan, but more trips to the United Kingdom.

In the August 2006 year, there were 1.861 million New Zealand resident short-term departures, up 1 percent on the 1.841 million departures in the previous August year.

Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 1,000 in the month of August 2006, compared with an excess of 600 arrivals in August 2005. The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT inflow of 1,100 in August 2006, compared with a net inflow of 1,400 a month earlier.

There was a net PLT migration gain of 12,500 people in the August 2006 year. This is up on the net gain of 6,600 people in the August 2005 year. The increase was due to 2,000 more PLT arrivals and 3,900 fewer PLT departures.