External Migration: Visitor Arrivals Up 19 Percent

External Migration: Visitor Arrivals Up 19 Percent

There were 173,300 short-term overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand in July 2004, an increase of 27,800 or 19 percent on July 2003, according to Statistics New Zealand.

In July 2004, there were more visitors from Australia (up 18,800 or 36 percent), China (up 3,200 or 98 percent) and Japan (up 1,500 or 15 percent) than in July 2003. The number of stay days for all visitor arrivals in July 2004 was down 2 percent on July 2003, from 3.41 million days to 3.32 million days. The average length of stay was 19 days in July 2004, compared with 23 days in July 2003.

In the year ended July 2004, there were 2.278 million visitor arrivals, an increase of 234,300 or 11 percent on the July 2003 year. There were more visitors from Australia (up 146,900), the United Kingdom (up 27,800), China (up 9,800), the United States (up 5,300) and Malaysia (up 5,000) compared with the year ended July 2003.

Seasonally adjusted monthly visitor arrivals fell less than 1 percent in July 2004, following a rise of 3 percent in June 2004. New Zealand residents departed on 183,300 short-term overseas trips in July 2004, an increase of 45,000 (33 percent) on July 2003. This is the largest monthly resident departures figure on record, surpassing the June 2004 figure of 169,000. There were more trips to Australia (up 21,600 or 31 percent), Fiji (up 4,700 or 55 percent) and the United States (up 1,800 or 25 percent). In the year ended July 2004, New Zealand resident short-term departures numbered 1.593 million, up 23 percent on the year ended July 2003. ƒn

Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 1,600 in July 2004, compared with 3,000 in July 2003. This decrease can be attributed to 700 fewer PLT arrivals and 700 more PLT departures. The main reason for the drop in PLT arrivals was a fall in non-New Zealand citizen arrivals (down 600).

The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT inflow of 1,300 in July 2004, up from 800 in June 2004.

In the year ended July 2004, there was a net PLT migration gain of 20,600. This is 51 percent lower than the net inflow of 42,100 people in the previous July year. This resulted from 83,500 PLT arrivals (down 13,300), and 63,000 PLT departures (up 8,200) in the July 2004 year. Compared with the July 2003 year, there were 700 fewer New Zealand citizen arrivals, and 3,600 more New Zealand citizen departures. Non-New Zealand citizen arrivals were down 12,600 and non-New Zealand citizen departures were up 4,700.

In the year ended July 2004, there was a net PLT inflow of 9,500 from the United Kingdom, up 7 percent on the July 2003 year figure (8,800). There was also a net inflow from China of 4,700, down from a net inflow of 14,300 in the July 2003 year. Overall, net PLT inflow from Asia has reduced considerably, from 30,100 in the July 2003 year to 13,100 in the July 2004 year. There was a net outflow to Australia of 12,700 in the July 2004 year.

Brian Pink

Government Statistician

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