Visitor Arrivals Up 12 Percent

External Migration: August 2004 ¡X 21 September 2004 Visitor Arrivals Up 12 Percent

There were 152,100 short-term overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand in August 2004, an increase of 16,800 or 12 percent on August 2003, according to Statistics New Zealand. In August 2004, there were more visitors from Australia (up 10,500 or 19 percent), Japan (up 2,300 or 20 percent), the United States (up 2,200 or 21 percent) and China (up 1,900 or 49 percent) than in August 2003.

The number of stay days for all visitor arrivals in August 2004 was down 1 percent on August 2003, from 2.45 million days to 2.42 million days. The average length of stay was 16 days in August 2004, compared with 18 days in August 2003. In the year ended August 2004, there were 2.295 million visitor arrivals, an increase of 248,900 or 12 percent on the August 2003 year.

There were more visitors from Australia (up 151,000), the United Kingdom (up 26,200), China (up 13,500), the United States (up 8,200) and Japan (up 7,700) compared with the year ended August 2003. Seasonally adjusted monthly visitor arrivals fell less than 1 percent from July 2004 to August 2004, following a fall of less than 1 percent in the preceding month.

New Zealand residents departed on 162,700 short-term overseas trips in August 2004, an increase of 37,400 (30 percent) on August 2003. There were more trips to Australia (up 20,100 or 32 percent), Fiji (up 3,700 or 44 percent) and the United States (up 1,800 or 26 percent). In the year ended August 2004, New Zealand resident short-term departures numbered 1.630 million, up 25 percent on the 1.305 million in the year ended August 2003.

Annual resident departures to countries in Oceania exceeded the one million mark for the first time in the year ended August 2004. ƒnƒnMedia Release Email: info@stats.govt.nz Toll free : 0508 525 525 www.stats.govt.nz Auckland Phone: 09 920 9100 Our Information Centres are at: Wellington Phone: 04 931 4600 Christchurch Phone: 03 964 8700

Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 900 in August 2004, compared with 2,200 in August 2003. This decrease can be attributed to 1,000 fewer PLT arrivals and 200 more PLT departures. The main reason for the drop in PLT arrivals was a fall in non-New Zealand citizen arrivals (down 800).

The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT inflow of 1,000 in August 2004, down from 1,300 in July 2004. In the year ended August 2004, there was a net PLT migration gain of 19,300, down 53 percent on the net inflow of 41,200 people in the previous August year. This is the first time since January 2002 that the annual net migration gain has dropped below 20,000. This resulted from 82,500 PLT arrivals (down 13,700), and 63,200 PLT departures (up 8,100) in the August 2004 year. Compared with the August 2003 year, non-New Zealand citizen arrivals were down 12,500 and non-New Zealand citizen departures were up 4,500.

There were 1,300 fewer New Zealand citizen arrivals and 3,600 more New Zealand citizen departures. In the year ended August 2004, there was a net PLT inflow of 9,500 from the United Kingdom, up 3 percent on the August 2003 year figure of 9,200. There was also a net inflow from China of 4,200, down from a net inflow of 13,600 in the August 2003 year. Overall, net PLT inflow from Asia has reduced considerably, from 29,000 in the August 2003 year to 12,300 in the August 2004 year.

There was a net outflow to Australia of 13,000 in the August 2004 year. More than eight million people crossed New Zealand's borders in the August 2004 year ¡V almost twice New Zealand's population of 4.061 million (provisional estimated resident population at 30 June 2004). There were 4.022 million arrivals and 4.014 million departures.

The increase from seven million to eight million international passenger movements took just nine months. Brian Pink Government Statistician

ENDS

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