Short-term visitor arrivals up, marginally

The number of short-term visitors to New Zealand rose 0.2 per cent to 250,600 in January compared with the same month a year earlier, Statistics New Zealand said today.

Seasonally adjusted visitor arrivals for the month were also little changed on December, when they rose 2 per cent. There were a total of 2.4 million visitor arrivals for the year through January, up 1 per cent on the previous year. Average length of stay fell to 23 days from 24 days in January 2005.

More visitors came from China and Hong Kong and fewer from Korea and Japan compared with the previous January.

New Zealand residents departed on 107,700 short-term overseas trips in January 2006, an increase of 10 per cent on January 2005.

They went on more trips to Australia, China and Malaysia, and fewer to Fiji.

In the January 2006 year, there were 1.882 million New Zealand resident short-term departures, up 7 per cent on the the previous January year.

- NZPA