External Migration: January 2006

2 March 2006

Visitor Arrivals Steady

There were 250,600 short-term overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand in January 2006, an increase of 600 (less than 1 percent) on January 2005, Statistics New Zealand said today. More visitors came from China and Hong Kong and fewer from Korea and Japan compared with the previous January.

Seasonally adjusted monthly visitor arrivals were up less than 1 percent in January 2006, following an increase of 2 percent in December 2005.

In the year ended January 2006, there were 2.384 million visitor arrivals, up 30,300 (1 percent) on the January 2005 year.

New Zealand residents departed on 107,700 short-term overseas trips in January 2006, an increase of 9,900 (10 percent) on January 2005. There were more trips to Australia, China and Malaysia, and fewer to Fiji.

In the January 2006 year, there were 1.882 million New Zealand resident short-term departures, up 7 percent on the 1.751 million in the previous January year.

Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 1,700 in both January 2006 and January 2005. The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT inflow of 500 in January 2006, compared with a net inflow of 1,200 a month earlier.

In the January 2006 year, there was a net PLT migration gain of 7,000, down 46 percent from the net inflow of 12,800 people recorded in the previous January year.

Brian Pink
Government Statistician

ENDS

© Scoop Media