Visitor Arrivals Down 6 Percent

External Migration: April 2002

There were 143,900 short-term overseas visitor arrivals in New Zealand in April 2002, down 9,300 or 6 percent on April 2001, according to Statistics New Zealand. Part of this decrease is because the Easter holidays, which fell in the middle of April in 2001, started at the end of March in 2002. There were fewer visitors from Australia (down 8,400), the United States (down 2,000), Hong Kong (down 1,300) and the United Kingdom (down 800), but there were more visitors from Korea (up 2,200), China (up 1,900) and Japan (up 1,300).

In the year ended April 2002, there were 1.946 million visitor arrivals, up 88,000 or 5 percent on the previous April year. Four countries ? Australia (up 28,700), Korea (up 23,400), China (up 20,700) and the United Kingdom (up 17,200) ? contributed most of the increase.

Seasonally adjusted visitor arrivals fell by 19 percent between March and April 2002. This follows a 14 percent increase from February to March 2002.

New Zealand residents departed on 95,500 short-term overseas trips in April 2002, down 19,200 or 17 percent on April 2001. This fall is due, in part, to the Easter holidays. There were fewer departures to Australia (down 12,200) and Fiji (down 1,000), but more departures to China (up 500).

In the year ended April 2002, New Zealand resident short-term departures numbered 1.268 million, down 18,000 or 1 percent on the year ended April 2001.

In the month of April 2002, permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 1,700, compared with a net outflow of 700 in April 2001. This change was the result of 1,500 more arrivals and 900 fewer departures.

In the year ended April 2002, PLT arrivals reached a new high of 89,900, up 22,500 on the last April year. Conversely, there were 16,900 fewer PLT departures. The overall result was a net inflow of 28,100 PLT migrants in 2002, compared with a net outflow of 11,400 migrants in the previous year. There was a net outflow to Australia of 15,400 in the 2002 year ? just under one-half of the net outflow of 31,100 in the April 2001 year. Conversely, there were significant net inflows from China (13,200), India (5,300), the United Kingdom (3,900), South Africa (3,200), Fiji (2,400) and Japan (2,300).

PLT arrivals of New Zealand citizens were up 3,400 (to 24,500) and non-New Zealand citizens were up by 19,100 (to 65,300) in the April 2002 year, compared with the April 2001 year. There were also PLT departures of 46,800 New Zealand citizens (down 16,400) and 15,000 non-New Zealand citizens (down 500), resulting in a net PLT outflow of 22,300 New Zealand citizens and a net PLT inflow of 50,400 non-New Zealand citizens in the April 2002 year.

Brian Pink
Government Statistician
END

© Scoop Media