December visitor arrivals hit all-time record

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International Travel and Migration: December 2011 – Information release

A record number of overseas visitors arrived in New Zealand in December 2011, Statistics New Zealand said today.

"There were 364,200 visitor arrivals in December 2011, the highest recorded for any month," Population Statistics manager Andrea Blackburn said. "This was 5 percent more than the previous high of 345,700 in December 2010."

The increase in visitors was mainly due to 14,200 more arrivals to visit friends and relatives, with New Zealand citizens providing 8,400 of this increase. Holiday arrivals were up 2,100 and arrivals for conferences and conventions were up 1,200.

By country, there were more visitors from Australia, China, Singapore, and Malaysia, but fewer from the United Kingdom. Most of the increase from China was from people staying three days or less. Visitors from the United Kingdom have decreased in most months since April 2007.

Visitor arrivals in the December 2011 year numbered 2.601 million, up 3 percent from 2010. This is the first time annual visitor numbers have passed 2.6 million.

New Zealand residents took 218,900 trips in December 2011, up 6 percent from December 2010. They took more trips to Australia, the United States, China, and the United Kingdom. In the December 2011 year, New Zealand residents took 2.093 million overseas trips, up 3 percent from 2010.

Migrant departures outnumber arrivals
New Zealand's seasonally adjusted net loss of migrants continued in December 2011, when departures exceeded arrivals by 500 people. Net losses have been recorded in 9 of the 10 months since the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch.

Unadjusted figures showed 1,100 more departures of New Zealand citizens compared with December 2010, including 900 more to Australia. There were also 500 fewer arrivals of New Zealand citizens.

New Zealand had a net loss of 1,900 migrants in the December 2011 year. This is the largest net loss since the August 2001 year (4,400). In 2011, there was a net loss of 36,900 people to Australia, the highest ever recorded. There were 51,100 departures to Australia, offset by 14,200 arrivals from Australia. In both directions, most migrants were New Zealand citizens.

There were net gains of migrants from most other countries, led by the United Kingdom (5,500), India (4,900), and China (4,700) in the December 2011 year.