Visitor Arrivals Up 1 Percent

External Migration: February 2006

21 March 2006

Visitor Arrivals Up 1 Percent

There were 252,400 short-term overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand in February 2006, an increase of 2,400 (1 percent) on February 2005, Statistics New Zealand said today. More visitors came from the United States and the United Kingdom and fewer from Hong Kong and China compared with the previous February.

Seasonally adjusted monthly visitor arrivals were up 1 percent in February 2006, following an increase of less than 1 percent in January 2006.

In the year ended February 2006, there were 2.386 million visitor arrivals, up 20,600 (1 percent) on the February 2005 year.

New Zealand residents departed on 91,100 short-term overseas trips in February 2006, a decrease of 2,400 (3 percent) on February 2005. There were more trips to Thailand, Fiji and the

Cook Islands, and fewer to Australia and Malaysia. In the February 2006 year, there were 1.879 million New Zealand resident short-term departures, up 7 percent on the 1.760 million in the previous February year.

Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 3,100 in February 2006, compared with an excess of 1,800 arrivals in February 2005. The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT inflow of 1,400 in February 2006, compared with a net inflow of 600 a month earlier.

In the February 2006 year, there was a net PLT migration gain of 8,300, down 26 percent from the net inflow of 11,100 people recorded in the previous February year.

Brian Pink

Government Statistician

ENDS

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