Australians boost visitor arrivals

Embargoed until 10:45am – 20 August 2007

Australians boost visitor arrivals

There were 173,000 visitor arrivals in July 2007, up 6,100 (4 percent) from July 2006, Statistics New Zealand said today. The increase was mainly due to 9,700 (15 percent) more visitors from Australia. Visitor arrivals from a number of New Zealand's other top source countries decreased compared with the same month of last year, including the United States (down 2,700 or 17 percent), Japan (down 1,200 or 12 percent) and Korea (down 1,100 or 11 percent).

In the year ended July 2007, there were 2.464 million visitor arrivals, up 87,700 (4 percent) from the previous year. Visitors from Australia (up 49,200 or 6 percent), China (up 19,000 or 19 percent) and the United Kingdom (up 11,200 or 4 percent) contributed most of this increase. However, there were fewer visitors from Japan (down 18,500 or 13 percent).

New Zealand residents departed on 185,500 short-term trips in July 2007. This is down 1,300 (1 percent) from the 186,800 departures in July 2006, and is well below the 205,200 departures recorded in July 2005.

The decrease in New Zealand resident departures in July 2007 follows increases of 16 percent in May 2007 and 11 percent in June 2007 (when compared with the same months of the previous year).

In the July 2007 year, New Zealand residents departed on 1.923 million trips, up 53,700 (3 percent) from the previous year. Trips to Australia were up 23,400 (3 percent) but trips to Fiji were down 8,600 (8 percent).

On a seasonally adjusted basis, permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 400 in July 2007. This series has varied around this level since January 2007. It had generally been above 1,000 for the months from December 2005 to December 2006. Actual PLT departures of New Zealand citizens were up 800 and PLT arrivals of New Zealand citizens were down 300, compared with July 2006.

Net permanent and long-term migration was 9,000 in the July 2007 year, down from the net gain of 12,100 in the July 2006 year. This is the first time that net PLT migration has been below 10,000 since the March 2006 year.

Cathryn Ashley-Jones
Acting Government Statistician

ENDS

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