Fewer Asian visitors in June offset by other increases

Fewer Asian visitors in June offset by an increase from the US, Australia

By Rebecca Howard

Aug. 9 (BusinessDesk) - A drop in the number of overseas visitors from Asia in June was offset by an increase from the US and Australia.

About 213,536 short-term visitors arrived in New Zealand in June, up 0.6 percent on the year, Stats NZ said.

The number of Chinese visitors fell 3.1 percent to 18,334. There were 100,648 Australian visitors in June, up 1.9 percent on the year, while visitors from the United States rose 10.5 percent to 19,996.

“We had fewer visitors from Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, but more from Taiwan. Air New Zealand introduced a direct flight to Taiwan in November 2018,” population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said.

Malaysian visitor numbers fell 44 percent on the year in June while 20.1 percent fewer Indonesians visited New Zealand. There were 33 percent fewer visitors from Hong Kong. However, there were 61.3 percent more visitors from Taiwan.

Today's data show annual visitors rose 2.7 percent to 3.9 million people in the 12 months to June 30. It was the slowest annual growth in a June year since 2013 and is well down from a peak of 11 percent in the year to June 2016, Stats NZ said.

Australians made up the biggest source of international visitors at 1.51 million for the 12 months through June, up 2.9 percent, while China was second at 421,113, down 6.2 percent on the year.

People from the US were the third-biggest source for tourists at 366,972, up 8.8 percent on the year.

Stats NZ also released its provisional migration numbers for June, which estimated a net 1,199 people migrated to New Zealand that month, down from a net 2,028 a year earlier. That took the provisional annual net migration figure to 49,427 in June from 48,918 a year earlier.

The provisional 12-month figure may be adjusted higher or lower by about 1,400, the agency said.

Stats NZ formally changed the way it measures migration in November when it stopped using arrival and departure cards travellers used to have to complete.

It said the card-based data hadn’t been accurate because it only captured travellers’ intentions and not what actually happened.

The net migration inflow for May was revised to 1,525 from a previous estimate of 1,690, while the annual figure was lowered to 50,256 from an initial estimate of 50,541.

(BusinessDesk)

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