Stats NZ figures show transtasman travel surged in May, dropping in June

Quarantine free travel between NewZealand and Australia has been hit by Covid outbreaks. Photo / Michael Craig

The brief two-way full travel bubble with Australia boosted passenger movements in May, only to start dipping the following month as travel restrictions came back.

Transtasman travel made up more than 90 per cent of all border crossings in May, Stats NZ figures show.

There were 189,500 total border crossings in May 2021, made up of 91,300 arrivals and 98,200 departures.

"This was more than double the total border crossings in April 2021 but still well down on May 2019 which had almost 1 million," said population indicators manager Tehseen Islam.

Provisional data for June 2021 shows a small decrease in border crossings from May to June which Stats NZ said partly reflects the impact of travel restrictions with some Australian states and territories in June.

Provisional figures for June show departures dropped to 90,200 and arrivals fell 85,360.

The highly anticipated quarantine-free travel bubble started in late April but the spread of community cases of Covid-19 in Australia during June led to a pause in states including New South Wales and Queensland.

Quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and New South Wales remains suspended.

The Stats NZ figures show New South Wales was feeding the majority of Australian visitors into this country in May.

There were close to 11,000 Australians from NSW entering the country, followed by 6500 Queenslanders and 5900 Victorians.

There were also a high number of New Zealand ex-pats flying home - 7000 from NSW, 7900 from Queensland and 5500 from Victoria.

There were 53,600 visitor arrivals from Australia in May, which was 94 per cent of all overseas visitor arrivals who specified their country of residence. Two-thirds of those arriving from Australia were visiting family and friends.

Australia was the main destination for New Zealand-resident travellers, with 25,300 arriving back in May 2021. This is well up on May last year, but still below pre-Covid levels in May 2019. About 70 per cent of those who arrived back home in May 2021 were visiting family and friends.

Of all New Zealand-resident travellers who stated a main destination on their return, 92 per cent were coming back from Australia, followed by the Cook Islands (2 per cent) and the United States (1 per cent).

Net migration was provisionally estimated at 5800 in the year ended May compared with 87,500 in the year ended May 2020, a drop of 81,700.

The net gain of 5800 in the year ended May 2021 was made up of 42,600 migrant arrivals and 36,800 migrant departures.

There was a net migration gain of 16,100 New Zealand citizens and a net migration loss of 10,300 non-New Zealand citizens in the year ended May 2021.