External Migration: January 2005

2 March 2005

External Migration: January 2005 — Visitor Arrivals Up 2 Percent

There were 249,900 short-term overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand in January 2005, an increase of 5,600 (2 percent) on January 2004, Statistics New Zealand said today. In January 2005, there were more visitors from Australia (up 6,800 or 10 percent), the United Kingdom (up 3,000 or 8 percent), Japan (up 1,500 or 10 percent) and Germany (up 900 or 11 percent) than in January 2004. In contrast, there were fewer visitors from China (down 2,400 or 26 percent), Hong Kong (down 2,400 or 61 percent) and Korea (down 1,900 or 10 percent). Some of the drop in visitors from these countries may have been due to the change in timing of the Chinese/Lunar New Year, from January in 2004 to February in 2005.

There was no change to the number of stay days for all visitor arrivals in January 2005 (5.94 million days), compared with January 2004. The average length of stay was 24 days in both January 2005 and January 2004. In the year ended January 2005, there were 2.353 million visitor arrivals, up 223,600 (10 percent) on the January 2004 year. There were more visitors from Australia (up 146,300), the United Kingdom (up 18,500), Japan (up 16,900), China (up 14,400) and the United States (up 4,600), compared with the year ended January 2004. Seasonally adjusted monthly visitor arrivals were down 3 percent in January 2005, following a rise of 3 percent in December 2004.

New Zealand residents departed on 97,800 short-term overseas trips in January 2005, an increase of 17,400 (22 percent) on January 2004. There were more trips to Australia (up 7,200 or 17 percent), Fiji (up 2,800 or 103 percent), the United Kingdom (up 1,100 or 63 percent), Samoa (up 1,000 or 84 percent) and China (up 1,000 or 39 percent).

In the year ended January 2005, New Zealand resident short-term departures numbered 1.751 million, up 26 percent on the 1.387 million recorded in the year ended January 2004. Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 1,700 in January 2005, compared with an excess of 4,000 in January 2004. The lower excess in January 2005 resulted from 1,200 fewer PLT arrivals and 1,100 more PLT departures. Non-New Zealand citizen arrivals decreased by 900, while New Zealand citizen departures increased by 900. The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT inflow of 500 in both December 2004 and January 2005.

In the year ended January 2005, there was a net PLT migration gain of 12,800, down 62 percent on the net inflow of 33,300 people recorded in the previous January year. This resulted from 79,300 PLT arrivals (down 12,300), and 66,500 PLT departures (up 8,300) in the January 2005 year. Compared with the January 2004 year, non-New Zealand citizen arrivals were down 9,300 and non-New Zealand citizen departures were up 3,200.

There were 3,000 fewer New Zealand citizen arrivals and 5,100 more New Zealand citizen departures. In the year ended January 2005, there was a net PLT inflow of 8,700 from the United Kingdom, down 17 percent on the January 2004 year figure of 10,500. There were also net inflows from India (2,400) and China (2,200), down from net inflows of 4,700 and 10,500, respectively.

Overall, net PLT inflow from Asia has reduced, from 22,200 in the January 2004 year to 8,800 in the January 2005 year. There was a net outflow to Australia of 15,500 in the January 2005 year.

Geoff Bascand

Acting Government Statistician

ENDS

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