Record Monthly Visitor Arrivals

2 February 2007

Record Monthly Visitor Arrivals

There were 319,000 visitor arrivals to New Zealand in December 2006, the highest number recorded for any month, Statistics New Zealand said today. This is up 4 percent on the 307,100 visitor arrivals in December 2005, and 2 percent more than the previous high of 313,100 in December 2004. More visitors arriving from Australia, the United Kingdom and China contributed to the increase. There is a continuing decline in visitor numbers from Japan, with 13 percent fewer arrivals in December 2006 than in the same month of 2005. Seasonally adjusted monthly visitor arrivals decreased 1 percent between November and December 2006.

In the year ended December 2006, there were 2.422 million visitor arrivals, up 2 percent on the December 2005 year. There were more visitors from Australia (up 28,800), China (up 17,900) and the United States of America (up 11,100), but fewer from Japan (down 18,500) and the United Kingdom (down 12,000). New Zealand residents departed on 190,500 short-term overseas trips in December 2006, up 2,000 (1 percent) on December 2005. More New Zealand residents departed for India, Samoa and Australia. Fewer trips were taken to Fiji (down 28 percent) following the political coup on 5 December 2006.

In the December 2006 year, there were 1.864 million New Zealand resident short-term departures, slightly lower than in the previous December year. Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 1,000 in December 2006, compared with an excess of 1,100 arrivals in December 2005. On a seasonally adjusted basis, there was a net PLT inflow of 1,200 in December 2006. In the December 2006 year, there was a PLT net inflow of 14,600, up on the net migration gain of 7,000 in the previous December year.

Brian Pink

Government Statistician

ENDS