The numbers of overseas visitors coming to New Zealand in July was up four per cent on last year bringing visitor arrivals to record levels, according to Statistics New Zealand figures released today.
A total of 182,900 people visited New Zealand in July, the highest number of visitors ever recorded
for the month, Statistics New Zealand said today.
The increase in visitor numbers was driven by a large increase in visitors from China, with 3900 more entering the country compared with last July.
Visitors from Japan and Australia also increased, with 2800 more Japanese and 1600 more Australians visiting compared to last July
In the year to July there was a total 2.508 million visitors with those from Australia accounting for 45 per cent or 1.121 million of those.
Population Statistics manager Bridget Hamilton-Seymour said the numbers of visitor arrivals coming from Asia was recovering from the impact of the swine flu epidemic.
"Although visitor numbers from Japan and Korea have only partially recovered after the H1N1 pandemic affected travel from those countries in July 2009, visitor arrivals from China have now exceeded levels before the pandemic," Hamilton-Seymour said.
The numbers of New Zealanders heading overseas also increased in July largely due to increased numbers of people visiting Australia.
In July, New Zealand residents departed on 208,000 overseas trips, an increase of five per cent compared to July 2009.
An extra 7700 New Zealanders visited Australia in the month.
In July permanent long-term arrivals exceeded departures by 1000 on seasonally adjusted basis, Statistics New Zealand said.
In the July 2010 year New Zealand had a net migration gain of 15,200 down from a recent peak of 22,600 in the January 2010 year.
The main inflows of migrants were from the United Kingdom, India, and China.
Considerably fewer New Zealanders were migrating to Australia with an outflow of 16,500 migrants to Australia since July 2009, compared to 26,900 in the previous year.
- NZPA
