Visitors from Asia rebound

Visitor arrivals to New Zealand in May 2010 were at similar levels to May 2009, due to a partial recovery in visitors from Asia offsetting fewer from Australia, Statistics New Zealand said today.

 

There were more visitors from China, Japan, and Korea in May 2010. "Arrivals from these countries were affected by the H1N1 pandemic last year," Population Statistics acting manager Adele Quinn said today. "Although visitor
numbers from these countries are higher than last year, they have still not reached May 2008 levels."

 
Although visitor arrivals from Australia decreased by 5 percent in May 2010, they were still 10 percent above the number of arrivals in May 2008. Large increases in visitors from Australia were recorded between April 2009 and March 2010, compared with the same months of the previous year.

 
In May 2010, New Zealand residents departed on 165,400 overseas trips, 1 percent more than in May 2009. There were fewer trips to Australia and Thailand, but more to the United Kingdom and China, compared with May 2009.

Net migration decreases

On a seasonally adjusted basis, net permanent and long-term migration (arrivals minus departures) was 200 in May 2010, the lowest monthly figure since the series briefly went below zero in November 2008.

 
This series has been decreasing steadily since January 2010 (1,800). On an unadjusted basis, there were 700 fewer arrivals and 500 more departures of non-New Zealand citizens compared with May 2009.

 
There were also 700 more departures of New Zealand citizens. The annual net migration gain was 18,000 in the May 2010 year, down from the recent peak of 22,600 in the January 2010 year. The main inflows of migrants were from the United Kingdom, India, and China.

 
There was a net outflow of 15,200 migrants to Australia, well down from 30,500 in the May 2009 year.