External Migration: October 2005

Visitor Arrivals Down in October

There were 176,200 short-term overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand in October 2005, a decrease of 5,200 (3 percent) from October 2004, Statistics New Zealand said today. More visitors came from Taiwan and fewer from the United States and Australia compared with the previous October.

Seasonally adjusted monthly visitor arrivals were down 3 percent in October 2005, following an increase of 2 percent in September 2005.

In the year ended October 2005, there were 2.395 million visitor arrivals, up 71,800 (3 percent) on the October 2004 year. Two countries – Australia (up 41,300) and the United Kingdom (up 27,600) – provided more than 95 percent of the annual increase.

New Zealand residents departed on 161,300 short-term overseas trips in October 2005, an increase of 11,100 (7 percent) on October 2004. There were more trips to Australia, the United Kingdom and Fiji.

In the October 2005 year, there were 1.861 million New Zealand resident short-term departures, up 10 percent on the 1.692 million in the previous year.

Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 1,800 in October 2005, compared with an excess of 2,200 arrivals in October 2004. The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT inflow of 400 in October 2005, compared with a net inflow of 500 a month earlier.

In the October 2005 year, there was a net PLT migration gain of 6,000, down 65 percent from the net inflow of 17,000 people recorded in the previous October year.

Brian Pink
Government Statistician

ENDS

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