Visitor Arrivals Up 8 Percent

Visitor Arrivals Up 8 Percent

There were 220,900 short-term overseas visitor arrivals in New Zealand in January 2003, up 16,100 or 8 percent on January 2002, according to Statistics New Zealand. More visitors came from Korea (up 4,000), the United Kingdom (up 3,200), Australia (up 2,500) and China (up 1,700), compared with January 2002. The number of stay days for all visitor arrivals in January 2003 was up 15 percent on the previous January, from 5.34 million days to 6.12 million days, while the average length of stay increased from 26 to 28 days.

In the year ended January 2003, there were 2.061 million visitor arrivals, up 144,400 or 8 percent on the previous January year. Holidaymakers accounted for 53 percent of the overseas visitors, while 26 percent came to visit friends and relatives and 10 percent came for business reasons.

There were more visitors from Japan (up 27,300), the United Kingdom (up 25,600), China (up 24,700), Korea (up 23,900) and the United States (up 10,400), compared with the year ended January 2002.

Seasonally adjusted visitor arrivals rose 1 percent in January 2003 and 3 percent in December 2002, when compared with the previous month.

New Zealand residents departed on 68,100 short-term overseas trips in January 2003. This was 1,700 or 3 percent more than in January 2002. There were more departures to China (up 600), Malaysia and India (both up 400) and Singapore, Germany and Samoa (all up 300), compared with January 2002. In contrast there were 1,500 fewer departures to Australia.

In the year ended January 2003, New Zealand resident short-term departures numbered 1.296 million, up 13,000 or 1 percent on the year ended January 2002.

In January 2003, permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 5,600, compared with a net inflow of 4,700 in January 2002. The PLT arrivals included people – such as students – who arrived in New Zealand intending to stay for a period of 12 months or more.

The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT inflow of 3,800 in January 2003, up from 2,900 in December 2002.

In the year ended January 2003, there was a net inflow of 39,000 PLT migrants, compared with 16,300 migrants in the previous January year. This resulted from 96,200 PLT arrivals (up 11,800), and 57,200 PLT departures (down 10,900) in 2003. Compared with the January 2002 year, non-New Zealand citizen arrivals were up 10,000 in 2003, and New Zealand citizen departures were down 11,600.

There were significant net PLT inflows from China (14,500), India (6,500), South Africa (2,600), Japan (2,300), Korea (2,100) and Fiji (2,000) in the January 2003 year. The net inflow from the United Kingdom (6,400) was more than double the January 2002 year figure (2,500). Conversely, there was a net outflow to Australia of 11,700.

Brian Pink

Government Statistician

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