Visitor Arrivals Down 3 Percent

20 December 2005

External Migration: November 2005 —

Visitor Arrivals Down 3 Percent

There were 214,700 short-term overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand in November 2005, a decrease of 5,900 (3 percent) from November 2004, Statistics New Zealand said today. More visitors came from China and Australia and fewer from Japan and Korea compared with the previous November.

Seasonally adjusted monthly visitor arrivals were down 1 percent in November 2005, following a decrease of 4 percent in October 2005. In the year ended November 2005, there were 2.389 million visitor arrivals, up 57,100 (2 percent) on the November 2004 year. New Zealand residents departed on 144,200 short-term overseas trips in November 2005, a decrease of 4,300 (3 percent) from November 2004. There were more trips to India, but fewer to China and Australia.

In the November 2005 year, there were 1.857 million New Zealand resident short-term departures, up 9 percent on the 1.707 million in the previous November year.

Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 1,700 in November 2005, compared with an excess of 1,600 arrivals in November 2004. The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT inflow of 800 in November 2005, compared with a net inflow of 500 a month earlier.

In the November 2005 year, there was a net PLT migration gain of 6,200, down 62 percent from the net inflow of 16,300 people recorded in the previous November year. The increase in the annual net PLT migration between October 2005 (6,000) and November 2005 (6,200) is the first time that the annual net PLT has increased over consecutive months since May 2003.

Brian Pink

Government Statistician

ENDS

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