NZ Visitors to Fiji Down 20 Per Cent

NZ Visitors to Fiji Down 20 Per Cent

New Zealand residents departed on 106,210 short-term overseas trips in May 2000, up 9,680 or 10 per cent on May 1999, according to the figures released by Statistics New Zealand. More people visited Australia (up 7,700 or 18 per cent), but fewer visited Fiji (down 1,270 or 20 percent) due largely to the coup attempt which began on 19 May 2000.

There were 99,070 overseas visitor arrivals in May 2000, up 9,290 or 10 per cent on May last year. Asia (up 4,750), contributed over half of this increase and Europe (up 2,100) just under a quarter. There were also more visitors from Australia (up 1,280) and Northern America (up 1,180).

For the year ended May 2000, there were 1.683 million overseas visitor arrivals, 152,000 or 10 per cent more than in the previous May year. Australia (up 39,300) made the largest contribution to this increase, followed by Korea (up 30,010), the United States (23,550), the United Kingdom (up 20,650) and China (up 11,150).

In May 2000, seasonally adjusted visitor numbers fell by three per cent from the record high in April 2000. This series has been generally increasing since March 1998.

Permanent and long-term departures exceeded arrivals by 2,810 in May 2000, a slight improvement from May 1999 (2,850). In May 2000, there were net losses to Australia (2,130) and Europe (1,480), but a net gain from Asia (680). For the year ended May 2000, there was a net loss of 9,060 migrants, down 2,280 on last year's net loss of 11,340. In the May 2000 year, there was a net loss of migrants to Australia (25,160), but net gains from China (4,060), South Africa (2,100), Japan (1,990), India (1,780) and Fiji (1,150).

Paul Brown
ACTING DEPUTY GOVERNMENT STATISTICIAN

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