External Migration November 2002

---

Commentary ...

There were 198,700 short-term overseas visitor arrivals in New Zealand in November 2002, up 34,100 (or 21 percent) on November 2001. Visitor arrivals in November 2001 were down 17,700 (or 10 percent) compared with November 2000, following the September 11 2001 events in the United States.

The number of stay days for all visitor arrivals in November 2002 was up 15 percent on the previous November, from 4.09 million days to 4.71 million days, while the average length of stay fell from 25 to 24 days.

Annual Visitor Arrivals November year 1993–2002

Visitor Arrivals by Purpose Year ended November 2002

During the November 2002 year, there were 2.019 million visitor arrivals, up 106,000 (or 6 percent) on the previous November year. Holidaymakers accounted for 52 percent (1,053,500) of the overseas visitors, while 26 percent (517,500) came to visit friends and relatives, and 11 percent (213,500) came on business.

• Visitors by source country

In November 2002, there were more visitors from Japan (up 9,200), Korea (up 5,000), the United States (up 4,000), Australia (up 3,500), China (up 3,000) and the United Kingdom (up 2,500), compared with November 2001.

Visitors From Japan Month of November

Visitors From the United States Month of November

In the year ended November 2002, there were more visitors from Korea (up 25,200 or 30 percent), the United Kingdom (up 23,500 or 11 percent), China (up 22,100 or 42 percent), Japan (up 15,800 or 10 percent) and the United States (up 13,500 or 7 percent) compared with the previous November year. In contrast, there were fewer visitors from Australia (down 8,600 or 1 percent) and Germany (down 4,700 or 9 percent).

(Note: Detailed visitor data is available in the November 2002 edition of the Statistics New Zealand report Tourism – International Visitor Arrivals, which can be ordered via the Statistics New Zealand website: www.stats.govt.nz.)

• New Zealand resident departures

New Zealand residents departed on 112,400 short-term overseas trips in November 2002, up 10,500 (or 10 percent) on November 2001. There were more departures to Australia (up 3,200), China (up 2,700) and the United States (up 1,600).

On a seasonally adjusted basis, New Zealand resident departures were unchanged between October and November 2002.

The number of intended days away for resident departures in November 2002 was up 18 percent (to 3.00 million days) on the previous November, while the average intended length of absence increased from 25 to 27 days.


On an annual basis, there were fewer short-term departures of New Zealand residents. In the year ended November 2002, departures totalled 1.288 million, down 5,000 on the previous November year. Holidaymakers accounted for 42 percent (544,000) of the departures, while 29 percent (377,700) left to visit friends and relatives, and 17 percent (212,500) went on business. There were fewer trips to Australia (down 29,200 or 4 percent), but more trips to China (up 9,700 or 52 percent), Fiji (up 5,100 or 8 percent), the Cook Islands (up 3,700 or 18 percent) and the United Kingdom (up 3,200 or 5 percent).

Annual Resident Departures November year 1993–2002

Resident Departures by Purpose Year ended November 2002

• Permanent and long-term migration

Permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 4,700 in November 2002, compared with a net inflow of 4,000 in the previous November month. Two factors contributed to the increase: there were 500 more PLT arrivals and 200 fewer PLT departures in November 2002. There were net gains from the United Kingdom (1,800), China (900) and India (500), but a net outflow to Australia (500).

Permanent and Long-term Migration by Country of Citizenship

There were 96,100 PLT arrivals in the year ended November 2002, up 17,200 or 22 percent on the November 2001 year. In contrast, there were 16,100 or 22 percent fewer PLT departures (57,900) in 2002. The overall result was a net migration gain of 38,200 in the November 2002 year, compared with a net inflow of 4,900 in the previous year. The main contributors to this increase in net migration were non-New Zealand citizen arrivals (up 14,800), and New Zealand citizen departures (down 15,900).

There were significant net inflows from China (14,800), India (6,600), the United Kingdom (6,000) and South Africa (2,800) in the year ended November 2002. Conversely, there was a net outflow to Australia of 12,500, less than half the net outflow of 26,200 in the November 2001 year.

Annual PLT Migration November 1992–2002

Annual Net PLT Migration November 1992–2002

• Two million visitor arrivals

Annual overseas visitor arrivals exceeded the two million milestone, for the first time, in the November 2002 year. This was 10 years after visitor numbers passed the one million mark (in the April 1992 year). The aim of this section is to analyse the changes in visitor arrivals over the 1992 to 2002 November years.

Overseas Visitor Arrivals November year 1992–2002

Between the 1992 and 2002 November years, annual visitor arrivals almost doubled from 1.041 million to 2.019 million, at an average annual growth of 7 percent. Annual change varied from an increase of 14 percent (in 1994) to a drop of 3 percent (in 1998). This was the only drop in visitor numbers over the period, and was due to the economic crisis which affected some Asian countries in late 1997. The main impact was on visitors from Korea, with arrivals from that country plummeting to a fraction of the number of arrivals in the previous year (from 120,800 in 1997 to 17,500 in 1998). Growth in visitors from other major sources, such as Australia and the United States, was not enough to offset the drop. Visitor numbers from Korea, and some other Asian countries, have still not recovered to their pre-1998 levels.

Overseas Visitor Arrivals by Country November year 1992–2002

There was an increase in annual visitor arrivals of 978,000 between 1992 and 2002. Two-thirds of this increase came from five of our major source countries: Australia (264,900), the United Kingdom (138,300), Korea (97,400), the United States (72,900) and China (71,000). Between 1992 and 2002, Australia was our top ranking source country for visitors. While the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan were the next three major sources over the period, their rankings were not always consistent from year to year. Of the top 10 source countries in 2002, Korea and China were the only countries that were not also in the top 10 in 1992. Korea entered in 1993 (in 8th place) displacing Switzerland, while China entered the top 10 in 2000 (in 10th place), displacing Hong Kong.

In the 11 November years from 1992 to 2002, overseas visitor arrivals in New Zealand totalled 16.7 million, over four times New Zealand's current population (just under 4 million). Over 5 million of these visitors came from Australia, 1.8 million came from the United States, and 1.7 million came from both the United Kingdom and Japan. There were just 250,000 visitors from China, our largest emerging market, with half of them visiting in the past two years.

Of the 16.7 million overseas visitor arrivals, about one in eight (2.0 million) were New Zealand citizens. Two-thirds of these New Zealand citizens were visitors from Australia.

Overseas Visitor Arrivals – Top 10 Source Countries November year 1992–2002

For technical information contact:
Ian Richards or Mansoor Khawaja
Christchurch 03 964 8700
Email: Ian.Richards@stats.govt.nz