Visitor Arrivals from Australia and the UK Down

Visitor Arrivals from Australia and the UK Down

In April 2005, there were fewer short-term overseas visitor arrivals from Australia (down 7,900 or 10 percent) and the United Kingdom (down 2,400 or 12 percent), compared with April 2004, Statistics New Zealand said today. Overall, there were 174,800 visitor arrivals to New Zealand in April 2005, a decrease of 9,600 (5 percent) on April 2004. A change in the timing of Easter, from April in 2004 to March in 2005, contributed to the drop in April 2005.

The decrease in visitor arrivals in April 2005 was the first, when compared with the same month of the previous year, since the SARS-related slowdown between May and July 2003. The single most important contributor to this decrease was a drop of 6,000 visitor arrivals from Australia in the week ending 10 April 2005, when compared with the equivalent week in April 2004 (Easter week). Seasonally adjusted monthly visitor arrivals were down 7 percent in April 2005, following a rise of 5 percent in March 2005.

In the year ended April 2005, there were 2.378 million visitor arrivals, up 180,700 (8 percent) on the April 2004 year. There were more visitors from Australia (up 106,700), China (up 17,700), the United Kingdom (up 14,300), Japan (up 11,400) and the United States (up 8,000), compared with the year ended April 2004.

New Zealand residents departed on 159,600 short-term overseas trips in April 2005, an increase of 15,500 (11 percent) on April 2004. There were more trips to Australia (up 6,200 or 8 percent), the United States (up 2,000 or 28 percent) and China (up 1,400 or 53 percent).

In the year ended April 2005, New Zealand resident short-term departures numbered 1.797 million, up 22 percent on the 1.472 million recorded in the year ended April 2004.

Permanent and long-term (PLT) departures exceeded arrivals by 700 in April 2005, compared with an excess of 100 departures in April 2004. The higher excess of departures in April 2005 resulted from 1,100 more PLT departures, partly offset by 400 more PLT arrivals. The increase in PLT arrivals was the first since February 2003.

The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT inflow of 500 in April 2005, up from an inflow of 300 a month earlier.

In the year ended April 2005, there was a net PLT migration gain of 9,300, down 64 percent from the net inflow of 25,700 people recorded in the previous April year. This resulted from 78,500 PLT arrivals (down 7,700), and 69,200 PLT departures (up 8,700) in the April 2005 year.

In the year ended April 2005, there was a net PLT inflow of 9,200 from the United Kingdom, down 7 percent on the April 2004 year figure (9,900), and net inflows from Fiji (2,000) and Japan (1,900). There were reduced net inflows from India (2,100) and China (1,300). Overall, net PLT inflow from Asia has reduced, from 16,500 in the April 2004 year to 7,200 in the latest April year.

There was a net outflow to Australia of 18,200 in the April 2005 year, compared with 11,400 in the previous April year.

Brian Pink

Government Statistician

END

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