Resident departures stable

New Zealand residents departed on 176,300 short-term overseas trips in August 2009, unchanged from August 2008, Statistics New Zealand said today.

The increase in trips to Australia (up 3,600 or 4 percent), boosted by travel to the Bledisloe Cup, offset falls to other destinations, including the United States (down 1,400 or 15 percent) and the United Kingdom (down 900 or 9 percent). For the August 2009 year, short-term departures of New Zealand residents numbered 1.916 million, down 76,400 (4 percent) from the previous year.

Despite total visitor arrivals (161,100) decreasing 1 percent in August 2009 compared with August 2008, visitor arrivals from Australia remained strong (up 9,200 or 12 percent). The decrease in visitor arrivals was driven by fewer visitors from Asia, with Japan (down 3,500 or 39 percent), Korea (down 2,100 or 34 percent), and China (down 1,900 or 29 percent) contributing most of the decline. Visitor arrivals in the August 2009 year (2.410 million) were down 69,700 (3 percent) from the August 2008 year.

Permanent and long-term (PLT) departures decreased by 2,000 in August 2009, including 1,800 fewer departures to Australia and 200 fewer to the United Kingdom. Monthly PLT departures have fallen by at least 1,000 compared with the same month of the previous year since February 2009.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, PLT arrivals exceeded PLT departures by 1,600 in August 2009, down from 2,400 in July 2009 but similar to the figure for June 2009 (1,700).

New Zealand's annual net PLT migration balance was a gain of 15,600 in the August 2009 year, up from 4,900 in the August 2008 year. The increase in net migration was driven largely by 9,900 fewer PLT departures compared with the previous year. There were also 800 more PLT arrivals.