New Zealanders travelling overseas hits record high

New Zealanders are taking short-term trips in record numbers, with Australia the preferred destination, but visitor arrivals are down, latest figures from Statistics New Zealand show.

For the first time, monthly New Zealand resident departures passed the 200,000 mark, with 205,200 short-term resident departures in July 2005, an increase of 12 per cent on July 2004, figures released today show.

In July 2005 there were more trips to Australia (up 6100 or 7 per cent), Fiji (up 2500 or 19 per cent), the Cook Islands (up 2300 or 55 per cent) and the United Kingdom (up 1900 or 20 per cent).

In the year ended July 2005, there were 1.832 million New Zealand resident short-term departures, an increase of 15 per cent on the 1.593 million recorded in the year ended July 2004.

However, the British and Lions rugby tour did not prove to be a drawcard for visitors outside the United Kingdom and Ireland, with fewer visitors arriving in New Zealand in July 2005 -- 168,400, a 3 per cent drop.

Visitor arrivals from the United Kingdom and Ireland increased by 3400 (21 per cent), compared with July 2004.

Just over half of this gain (1800) occurred on the first two days in July (just before the second test), while the rest of the increase was before the third test on July 9.

In contrast, there were fewer visitors from Australia (down 4500 or 6 per cent) and the United States (down 1500 or 10 per cent).

Seasonally adjusted monthly visitor arrivals were down 16 per cent in July 2005, following a rise of 15 per cent in June 2005.

Overall visitor arrival numbers continue to increase in the year ended July 2005, with 2.399 million visitor arrivals, up 120,900 (5 per cent) on the July 2004 year.

Australia provided 57 per cent of the annual increase in visitor numbers, up 69,400.

However, more visitors arrived from the United Kingdom (up 29,200) and China (up 6600) compared with the previous July year.

More people continue to leave New Zealand on permanent and long-term (PLT) departures than arrived, by 100 in July 2005, compared with an excess of 1600 arrivals in July 2004.

The net PLT outflow in July 2005 can be attributed to 1100 more PLT departures and 600 fewer PLT arrivals.

The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT outflow of 100 in July 2005, compared with an inflow of 700 a month earlier. This is the first time since May 2001 that there has been a seasonally adjusted net PLT outflow.

In the July 2005 year, there was a net PLT migration gain of 6900 down 67 per cent from the net inflow of 20,600 people recorded in the previous July year.

This resulted from 78,600 PLT arrivals (down 5000) and 71,700 PLT departures (up 8700) in the July 2005 year.

- NZPA