Visitors from Australia exceed 1 million

Annual visitor arrivals from Australia exceeded 1 million for the first time in the May 2009 year, Statistics New Zealand said today. The 1.002 million visitor arrivals were up 35,500 (4 percent) compared with the May 2008 year, and are double the figure of 10 years ago. In contrast, the 2.419 million visitor arrivals from all source countries during the May 2009 year were down 64,200 (3 percent) from the May 2008 year.

In May 2009, arrivals of short-term overseas visitors to New Zealand numbered 141,900. This was up 1,400 (1 percent) from May 2008 (140,500) and was the highest ever recorded for a May month. There were more visitor arrivals from Australia (up 9,200), but fewer visitor arrivals from Korea (down 3,400), China (down 2,700) and Japan (down 2,500).

New Zealand residents departed on 163,700 short-term overseas trips in May 2009, down 10,300 (6 percent) from the 174,000 departures in May 2008. There were fewer trips to Australia (down 5,900), the United Kingdom (down 900) and Fiji (down 800). For the May 2009 year, short-term departures of New Zealand residents numbered 1.930 million, down 70,100 (4 percent) from the May 2008 year.

Permanent and long-term (PLT) departures decreased by 2,100 in May 2009, including 1,500 fewer departures to Australia and 500 fewer to the United Kingdom. PLT arrivals decreased by 100 compared with May 2008.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, PLT arrivals exceeded PLT departures by 2,700 in May 2009, up from 2,200 in April 2009 and 1,700 in March 2009. The seasonally adjusted figure for net PLT migration in May 2009 is the highest since July 2003 (2,800).

New Zealand's annual net PLT migration balance was a gain of 11,200 in the May 2009 year, up from 4,900 in the May 2008 year. The net PLT outflow to Australia was 30,500 in the May 2009 year, down from the record net outflows of 35,400 in both the December 2008 and January 2009 years. PLT arrivals of New Zealand citizens numbered 24,600 in the May 2009 year, just above the average of 23,400 for the 1979–2008 December years. Arrivals of New Zealand citizens tend to show little variation year-to-year.