KEY POINTS:
Visitor arrivals from the People's Republic of China increased by 6,500 (76 per cent) in February, compared with the same month in 2006, Statistics New Zealand said today.
Some of the increase was due to the timing of Chinese New Year, which fell in February this year but January last year. The latest increase pushed annual visitor arrivals from China to 113,000, surpassing Korea to become the fifth-largest source of visitors to New Zealand.
The increase from China and a 6 per cent increase from Australia helped visitor arrivals reach 267,600 in February 2007, up 6 per cent from the 252,400 visitor arrivals in February 2006. Seasonally adjusted visitor arrivals increased by 7 per cent between January and February 2007.
In the year ended February 2007, there were 2.433 million visitor arrivals, a record for any 12-month period. There were more visitors from Australia (up 30,000) and China (up 24,700), but fewer from Japan (down 22,000) and the United Kingdom (down 10,100).
New Zealand residents departed on 96,300 short-term overseas trips in February 2007, an increase of 5,200 (6 per cent) on February 2006. There were more trips to Australia, China, the United Kingdom, India and the Cook Islands.
In the February 2007 year, there were 1.870 million New Zealand resident short-term departures, down from 1.879 million departures the previous February year.
Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 2,100 in February 2007, compared with an excess of 3,100 arrivals in February 2006. On a seasonally adjusted basis, there was a net PLT inflow of 500 in February 2007.
In the February 2007 year, there was a net PLT inflow of 13,200, up on the net gain of 8,300 in the February 2006 year. Annual net PLT migration had reached 14,800 in the year ended November 2006, but has since eased.
