Visitors Exceed Two Million

Visitors Exceed Two Million

Annual visitor arrivals exceeded the two million milestone, for the first time, in the November 2002 year, according to Statistics New Zealand. In the year ended November 2002, there were 2.019 million visitor arrivals, up 106,000 (or 6 percent) on the previous November year. Korea (up 25,200), the United Kingdom (up 23,500), China (up 22,100), Japan (up 15,800) and the United States (up 13,500) were the main contributors to the increase.

There were 198,700 short-term overseas visitor arrivals in New Zealand in November 2002, up 34,100 (or 21 percent) on November 2001. Visitor arrivals in November 2001 were down 17,700 (or 10 percent) compared with November 2000, following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. In November 2002, more visitors came from Japan (up 9,200), Korea (up 5,000), the United States (up 4,000), Australia (up 3,500), China (up 3,000) and the United Kingdom (up 2,500), compared with November 2001. The number of stay days for all visitor arrivals was up 15 percent on the previous November, from 4.09 million to 4.71 million days, while the average length of stay fell from 25 to 24 days.

Seasonally adjusted visitor arrivals fell 2 percent between October and November 2002. This follows a 4 percent increase from September to October 2002. New Zealand residents departed on 112,400 short-term overseas trips in November 2002, up 10,500 (or 10 percent) on November 2001. There were more departures to Australia (up 3,200), China (up 2,700) and the United States (up 1,600).

In the year ended November 2002, New Zealand resident short-term departures numbered 1.288 million, just 5,000 fewer than in the previous November year. Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 4,700 in the month of November 2002, compared with a net inflow of 4,000 in November 2001. This increase was the result of 500 more PLT arrivals and 200 fewer PLT departures.

In the year ended November 2002, there were 96,100 PLT arrivals, up 17,200 on the last November year. In contrast, there were 16,100 fewer PLT departures (57,900). The overall result was a net inflow of 38,200 PLT migrants in 2002, compared with a net inflow of 4,900 migrants in the previous November year. The main contributors to this increase in net migration were non-New Zealand citizen arrivals (up 14,800), and New Zealand citizen departures (down 15,900).

There were significant net inflows from China (14,800), India (6,600), the United Kingdom (6,000) and South Africa (2,800) in the November 2002 year. Conversely, there was a net outflow to Australia of 12,500, less than half the net outflow of 26,200 in the November 2001 year.

Brian Pink

Government Statistician

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