Overseas Visitors Up 4 Per Cent

External Migration: February 2001

In February 2001, there were 199,790 overseas visitors, an increase of 6,940 or 4 per cent on February 2000, according to latest figures from Statistics New Zealand. Holidaymakers accounted for 58 per cent of these visitors, while about 23 per cent came to visit friends and relatives, and 9 per cent came on business. There were more visitors from Australia (up 3,620), Europe (up 2,360) and the Americas (up 1,300), but fewer from Asia (down 2,230) compared with February 2000.

Seasonally adjusted visitor arrivals fell by 6 per cent between January and February 2001. This compares with an increase of less than 1 per cent between December 2000 and January 2001.

Visitor arrivals for the year ended February 2001 totalled 1.824 million, up 180,000 or 11 per cent on the previous year. There were more visitors from Australia (up 49,500 or 9 per cent), the United Kingdom (up 34,760 or 20 per cent), Korea (up 18,940 or 37 per cent), China (up 11,780 or 45 per cent), Japan (up 9,220 or 6 per cent), and the United States (up 7,170 or 4 per cent), when compared with the February 2000 year.

On a permanent and long-term basis, departures exceeded arrivals by 1,470 in February 2001, compared with a net outflow of 40 for the previous February. While there were 1,410 more arrivals in February 2001 than in the previous February, there were 2,840 more departures. During the year ended February 2001, there were 65,470 permanent and long-term arrivals, and 78,680 departures. This resulted in a net outflow of 13,210 for the year, up 4,210 or 47 per cent on the February 2000 year. There was a net loss to Australia of 31,470 in the February 2001 year, 6,840 more than in the previous year. There were also net outflows to the United Kingdom and the United States, but net inflows from China, India, South Africa, Fiji and Japan.

Dianne Macaskill DEPUTY GOVERNMENT STATISTICIAN

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