Immigrant and tourist numbers up on last year

12.00pm

The numbers of immigrants and tourists coming to New Zealand are still rising, Statistics New Zealand figures released today show.

The number of permanent long-term (PLT) arrivals in January exceeded departures by 5600, compared with a net inflow of 4700 last January .

Over the year to January, 39,000 more people settled in New Zealand than left, more than double the compared the 16,300 net arrivals the previous year .

The number of short-term visits to New Zealand in January rose 8 per cent on January last year to 220,900, a rise of 16,100 on the previous year.

The number of visitors from South Korea rose by 4000, the United Kingdom by 3200, Australia by 2500 and China 1700 on January 2002.

The number of stay days for January rose from 5.34 million to 6.12 million and the average stay rose from 26 to 28 days.

There were 2.061 million visits to New Zealand in the year to January, a rise of 144,400, or 8 per cent, on the previous year.

New Zealand residents made 68,100 short-term trips abroad, up 1700, or 3 per cent, on January 2002.

The net number of PLT arrivals - people who intend to stay for 12 months or more - rose from 2900 in January 2002 to 3800 in January 2003.

January's PLT arrivals exceeded departures by 5600 compared with 4700 last January.

There were 96,200 PLT arrivals (up 11,800) and 57,00 departures (down 10,900) during the 12-month period.

Non-New Zealand citizen arrivals rose by 10,000 and New Zealand citizen departures dropped 11,600 in that period.

The most net PLT arrivals for the year to January came from China (14,500), India (6500) and the UK (6400).

There were also significant net arrivals from South Africa (2600), Japan (2300), South Korea (2100) and Fiji (2000).

- NZPA