Visitor Arrivals Up 7 Per Cent

External Migration: April 2001

Visitor Arrivals Up 7 Per Cent

There were 153,190 overseas visitors to New Zealand in April 2001, up 9,500 or 7 per cent on April 2000, according to latest figures from Statistics New Zealand. Asia (up 4,170) and Australia (up 4,000) accounted for 86 per cent of this increase, but there were fewer visitors from Europe (down 1,260) and the Americas (down 1,190).

Visitor arrivals for the April 2001 year totalled 1.858 million, up 184,000 or 11 per cent on the previous year. Five countries contributed two-thirds of the increase: Australia (up 51,560 or 9 per cent), the United Kingdom (up 28,080 or 16 per cent), Korea (up 16,150 or 29 per cent), China (up 13,490 or 49 per cent), and Japan (up 12,270 or 8 per cent).

There were 114,680 short-term departures by New Zealand residents in April 2001, down 8,960 or 7 per cent on April 2000. For the year ended April 2001, short-term departures totalled 1.286 million, up 64,000 or 5 per cent on the previous April year.

In April 2001, permanent and long-term departures exceeded arrivals by 690, down almost two-thirds on the net outflow of 1,890 for the previous April. Compared with April 2000, there were 890 more arrivals and 310 fewer departures during the month. The seasonally adjusted permanent and long-term migration series recorded a net inflow of 360 in April 2001. This is the first net inflow since November 1999 and the second since January 1998.

During the year ended April 2001, there were 67,360 permanent and long-term arrivals, and 78,760 departures. This resulted in a net outflow of 11,400 for the year, compared with 9,100 in the April 2000 year. There was a net loss to Australia of 31,150 in 2001, 5,970 more than in the previous year. There were also sizable net outflows to the United Kingdom (1,170) and the United States (970), but net inflows from China (6,640), India (2,570), South Africa (2,240), Fiji (1,940), Japan (1,670) and Samoa (1,040).

Dianne Macaskill DEPUTY GOVERNMENT STATISTICIAN END

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