Visitor Arrivals Up 14 Percent

Visitor Arrivals Up 14 Percent

There were 162,300 short-term overseas visitor arrivals in New Zealand in October 2002, up 20,200 (or 14 percent) on October 2001, according to Statistics New Zealand. Visitor arrivals in October 2001 were down 4,500 (or 3 percent), compared with October 2000, following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. In October 2002, more visitors came from Japan (up 7,000), Korea (up 3,600), the United Kingdom (up 2,200), Australia (up 2,100) and the United States (up 1,800), compared with October 2001. The number of stay days for all visitor arrivals was up 5 percent on the previous October from 3.29 million to 3.45 million days, while the average length of stay fell from 23 to 21 days.

In the year ended October 2002, there were 1.985 million visitor arrivals, up 54,000 (or 3 percent) on the previous October year. The United Kingdom (up 20,500), China (up 20,100) and Korea (up 19,800) were the main contributors to the increase. In contrast, there were fewer visitors from Australia (down 12,900).

Seasonally adjusted visitor arrivals rose 4 percent between September and October 2002. This follows a 2 percent fall from August to September 2002.

New Zealand residents departed on 113,700 short-term overseas trips in October 2002, up 12,700 (or 13 percent) on October 2001. There were more departures to Australia (up 7,300), the United States (up 1,300) and the United Kingdom (up 1,100). Conversely, there were fewer trips to Indonesia (down 500), possibly a result of the October 13 bombing in Bali.

In the year ended October 2002, New Zealand resident short-term departures numbered 1.278 million, 26,000 (or 2 percent) fewer than in the previous October year.

Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 4,100 in the month of October 2002, compared with a net inflow of 3,800 in October 2001. This increase was the result of 100 more PLT arrivals and 200 fewer PLT departures.

In the year ended October 2002, there were 95,600 PLT arrivals, up 18,900 on the last October year. In contrast, there were 16,900 fewer PLT departures (58,100). The overall result was a net inflow of 37,500 PLT migrants in 2002, compared with a net inflow of 1,700 migrants in the previous October year. The main contributors to this increase in net migration were non-New Zealand citizen arrivals (up 16,000), and New Zealand citizen departures (down 16,500). There were significant net inflows from China (14,700), India (6,600), the United Kingdom (5,800) and South Africa (3,000) in the October 2002 year. Conversely, there was a net outflow to Australia of 12,800, less than half the net outflow of 27,100 in the October 2001 year.

Brian Pink

Government Statistician

END

© Scoop Media