Australians arrived in droves for short visits last month, helping to keep total international visitor arrivals static between July 2008 and July 2009 despite the impact of the global economic crisis and swine flu on arrivals from the rest of the world.
Some 15,800 Australians arrived last month, up 20per cent on July 2008, consistent with reports that New Zealand skifields have enjoyed a bumper season thanks to trans-Tasman visitors.
The Statistics New Zealand measure showed a 37 per cent increase in the number of Australian holiday-makers, and a 21 per cent increase in Australians visiting family and friends, with the largest increase coming from New South Wales, up 33 per cent.
Consistent with trends from other countries, Australian business travellers arriving in New Zealand dropped by 12 per cent in July, compared to a year earlier.
The latest figures coincide with new initiatives to make trans-Tasman border formalities quicker and easier.
There were significantly fewer visitor arrivals from Japan (down 5,000 or 57 per cent), Korea (down 3,000 or 37 per cent), and China (down 2,700 or 39 per cent) in July 2009, compared with a year earlier.
Arrivals from Japan and China have dropped sharply since concerns over the worldwide H1N1 influenza outbreak emerged in late April 2009. Large decreases in visitor arrivals from Korea were being recorded before the H1N1 outbreak.
Long departures by New Zealanders continued to show a sharply declining trend, with the net permanent or long term net gain of 14,500 people in the year to July higher than the annual average of 11,400 for the December years from 1990-2008.
