Asians underpin short-term arrivals to NZ

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Asian visitors continued to underpin New Zealand tourist numbers in February, as more Britons elected to stay away from this part of the world.

Short-term visitor arrivals edged up 0.1 per cent to a seasonally adjusted 267,000 in February from the same month a year earlier, according a Statistics New Zealand.

A flurry of friends and family coming to New Zealand after the Feb. 22 earthquake bumped up the numbers, the statement said.

An increase in the number of Chinese, Koreans and Indians visiting New Zealand offset a 10 per cent decline in British tourists in the month.

UK residents are New Zealand's second-biggest source of visitors behind Australia.

"We forecast seasonally adjusted visitor arrivals to fall 10 per cent (quarter on quarter) in 2Q11, with Japanese arrivals down 40 per cent quarter on quarter," Philip Borkin, economist at Goldman Sachs & Partners NZ, said.

"We expect the weakness to only be brief, with arrivals beginning to recover from 3Q11. Arrivals associated with the Rugby World Cup also contribute to the recovery."

Last month, Goldman Sachs flagged tourism as vulnerable to a slump after the Christchurch quake and Japanese tsunami sap people's appetite to visit the region.

That's being compounded by rising oil prices which are putting airlines under pressure and forcing them to reduce capacity.

Net migration was stable with 470 more people coming to live in New Zealand than depart, up 30 from January, though less than half the level in February 2010.

That comes as more locals show an interest in jumping across the Tasman with 48,300 New Zealand nations going to Australia in the year ended February, up 9200 from the year before.

Borkin said there was a further small increase in the number of long-term departures to Australia.

"Over the past 12 months, a net 23,500 have permanently migrated to Australia, the highest number since September 2009," he said.