More Australians hop over for a visit

Embargoed until 10:45am – 21 April 2008

More Australians hop over for a visit

Visitor arrivals from Australia increased by 6,700 (8 percent) in March 2008, when compared with March 2007, Statistics New Zealand said today. This was helped by the earlier timing of the Easter holidays. There were also more visitor arrivals from the United Kingdom (up 2,800 or 8 percent), China (up 1,800 or 20 percent) and the United States (up 1,400 or 6 percent), but fewer from Korea (down 3,000 or 31 percent) and Japan (down 1,300 or 10 percent). Total visitor arrivals numbered 250,800 in March 2008, up 11,600 (5 percent) from March 2007.

Visitor arrivals reached 2.497 million in the year ended March 2008, up 51,900 (2 percent) from the previous year. There were more visitors from Australia and China, but fewer visitors from Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom. New Zealand residents departed on 134,800 short-term trips overseas in March 2008, up 2,400 (2 percent) from March 2007. Most of this increase was to countries in Asia (up 1,900).

In the year ended March 2008, New Zealand residents departed on 1.996 million overseas trips, up 117,100 (6 percent) from the March 2007 year. There were more trips to Australia, France, the Cook Islands, China and the United States, but fewer trips to Fiji.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 500 in March 2008. The net PLT series averaged 500 between January and November 2007, but had been lower between December 2007 and February 2008.

Annual net PLT migration increased slightly from 4,600 in the February 2008 year to 4,700 in the March 2008 year, but was well down on the net inflow of 12,100 recorded in the previous March year. The net outflow to Australia was 29,900 in the year ended March 2008, the highest since the net outflow of 30,000 in the year ended July 2001. Net inflows were recorded for the United Kingdom (6,900), India (4,200), the Philippines (3,300), Fiji (2,500), and South Africa (2,100).

Geoff Bascand
Government Statistician
21 April 2008

ENDS

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