Chinese New Year timing boosts visitor arrivals

Chinese New Year, marked by the Auckland Lantern Festival in Albert Park, fell in February this year. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The number of short term overseas visitors arriving in this country rose 4 per cent in February from a year earlier, helped by the timing of the Chinese New Year.

The 267,900 short term visitors in February was up 11,300 from a year earlier, Statistics New Zealand said. .

Arrivals from China rose 4900 or 41 per cent, from Taiwan they were up 2300 or 188 per cent, and from Hong Kong they rose 1700 or 111 per cent.

Those rises were largely due to Chinese New Year - a popular time for people from those countries to travel - falling in February this year, rather than in January as it did in 2009, Statistics NZ said.

Combining the months of January and February, the 26,400 visitor arrivals from China this year were only just above the 26,300 in the same two months of 2009.

For Hong Kong the 4700 visitors in January and February 2010 compared with 4000 in the same period of 2009, while for Taiwan for comparison was 6500 this year to 3800 last year.

Visitors from Australia rose 3700 or 4 per cent in February from the year before, while the 40,500 visitor arrivals from Britain was down 2000 or 5 per cent from February 2009, and well down on the 50,000 visitors from Britain in February 2008.

For the year to February, visitor arrivals rose 57,200 or 2 per cent to 2.48 million, with numbers from Australia up 119,300 or 12 per cent to 1.1 million.

Visitors from Japan fell 18,600 or 19 per cent, those from Korea were down 17,500 or 24 per cent, from Britain were down 16,900 or 6 per cent, and from China fell 10,100 or 9 per cent.

Visitors from Australia in the February 2010 year were more than double the number of 10 years earlier, with 534,700 arrivals in the February 2000 year, Statistics NZ said.

The 79,700 visitors from Japan in the February 2010 year was well below the 174,800 annual high recorded in the January 2003 year.

The 55,000 visitors from Korea compared to the 130,700 annual high recorded in the April 1997 year.

- NZPA