Visitor Arrivals Up 2 Percent
There were 165,800 short-term overseas visitor arrivals in New Zealand in October 2003, up 3,500 or 2 percent on October
2002, according to Statistics New Zealand.
In October 2003, there were more visitors from Australia (up 6,300 or 13 percent), Malaysia (up 900 or 48 percent), the
United Kingdom (up 700 or 4 percent), and the United States (up 500 or 3 percent), but fewer visitors from Japan (down
3,100 or 20 percent) and Korea (down 800 or 9 percent). The number of stay days for all visitor arrivals in October 2003
increased by 5 percent on the previous October, from 3.45 million days to 3.61 million days. The average length of stay
was 22 days in October 2003, compared with 21 days in October 2002.
In the year ended October 2003, there were 2.062 million visitor arrivals, up 76,600 or 4 percent on the previous
October year. Holidaymakers accounted for 52 percent of the overseas visitors, while 27 percent came to visit friends
and relatives and 10 percent came for business reasons. There were more visitors from Australia (up 56,600), the United
Kingdom (up 23,600), the United States (up 10,900), Korea (up 7,000) and Germany (up 4,100), compared with the year
ended October 2002.
Seasonally adjusted visitor arrivals were down by less than 1 percent in October 2003, following a rise of 5 percent in
September 2003, when compared with the previous month.
New Zealand residents departed on 125,800 short-term overseas trips in October 2003, an increase of 11 percent or 12,100
on October 2002. There were more trips to Australia (up 5,200), Fiji (up 1,300), Tonga and the Cook Islands (both up
500).
In the year ended October 2003, New Zealand resident short-term departures numbered 1.330 million, up 4 percent on the
year ended October 2002.
Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 3,000 in October 2003, compared with 4,100 in October
2002. This decrease can be attributed to 600 fewer PLT arrivals and 500 more PLT departures. PLT arrivals have now
dropped in each of the past eight months, when compared with the same months of the previous year.
The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT inflow of 1,900 in October 2003, down from 2,400 in September 2003.
In the year ended October 2003, there was a net migration gain of 39,300 – 5 percent higher than the net inflow of
37,500 people in the previous October year. This resulted from 94,900 PLT arrivals (down 600), and 55,600 PLT departures
(down 2,500) in 2003. Compared with the October 2002 year, New Zealand citizen departures were down 4,900 and New
Zealand citizen arrivals were up 2,600. In contrast, non-New Zealand citizen arrivals were down 3,200 and non-New
Zealand citizen departures were up 2,500. There were significant net inflows from China (12,400), India (5,200), Japan
(2,300), Fiji (1,900), South Africa (1,700) and Korea (1,500) in the year ended October 2003. There was also a
substantial net inflow from the United Kingdom (10,000), up 72 percent on the October 2002 year figure (5,800).
Conversely, there was a net outflow to Australia of 9,600 in the October 2003 year, compared with net outflows of 12,800
in the October 2002 year and 27,100 in the October 2001 year.
Dallas Welch
Deputy Government Statistician