International Travel and Migration: June 2011

Both visitor arrivals and short-term trips by New Zealand residents were down in June 2011 when compared with June 2010, Statistics New Zealand said today. "Ash cloud from the Chilean Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano disrupted travel this month," Population Statistics manager Andrea Blackburn said. "A number of flights to and from New Zealand were cancelled from 12 June onwards, due to the ash cloud."

Visitor arrivals in June 2011 (131,300) were the lowest for a June month since 2003 (112,000). When compared with June 2010, there were 11,400 fewer visitors from Australia, New Zealand's main source of visitors. Fewer visitors also arrived from the United Kingdom, Korea, Japan, and the United States. Arrivals from the United Kingdom have declined in most months since April 2007, while arrivals from Japan and Korea dropped noticeably after the Christchurch earthquake on 22 February 2011.

Despite the flight disruptions, more visitors arrived from China and Malaysia. The number of visitors from China was 6,700 (up 23 percent), a record for a June month. When compared with the same month of the previous year, visitor arrivals from China increased each month since May 2010. The increase from Malaysia was influenced by the launch of flights between Kuala Lumpur and Christchurch in April 2011, and additional Singapore–Auckland flights that started in March 2011.

Short-term trips by New Zealand residents (192,400) were down 3 percent in June 2011, compared with June 2010. Fewer trips were taken to Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan.
New Zealand residents took more short-term trips to Thailand, the Cook Islands, Malaysia, and Fiji.
High net outflow to Australia

Permanent and long-term (PLT) departures to Australia outnumbered arrivals by 3,100 in June 2011. This is the highest net outflow for a June month since 1981 (3,400).

On a seasonally adjusted basis, there was an overall net outflow of 300 PLT migrants in June 2011. Net migration has been negative since March 2011, when departures from Christchurch jumped following the earthquake which damaged the city on 22 February.

Departures of Christchurch residents numbered 600 in June 2011, up from 500 in June 2010. Between March and May 2011, departures from Christchurch were almost double those in the same months in 2010.

New Zealand had a net migration gain of 3,900 in the year ended June 2011, down from 16,500 the previous year. This is below the average annual net migration gain of 12,000 over the last 20 years. The decrease in net migration, compared with 2010, was mainly due to an increase in departures to Australia.