Visitor numbers up in 2001

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Wednesday 20th February 2002

The number of overseas visitors to New Zealand continued to grow in 2001 despite the collapse of Ansett Australia and the events of September 11.

Statistics New Zealand reports overseas visitor number rose by 121,000 in the year ended December to 1.91 million, an increase of 7% on the previous year.

By far the biggest number came from Australia, which accounted for 630,500 visitors or nearly a third of the total. The next largest source of visitors was the United Kingdom, followed by the United States, Japan, Korea and China.

Just over half of visitors came to New Zealand for a holiday while a further 500,000 came to visit friends and relatives. Others visited for business, education or medical reasons or for conferences.

Statistics NZ says annual total passenger arrivals and departures, consisting of overseas visitors, New Zealand residents and migrants, reached 6.554 million last year, up 5% on the year before.

Short-term departures by New Zealand residents reached 1.29 million, less than 1% higher than the previous year. More than half that number travelled to Australia with the next most popular destinations the United States, Fiji and the United Kingdom.

It was the first time in more than 20 years that Fiji was a more popular destination than the United Kingdom. 40% of those departing went on holiday while 376,000 went to visit friends and relatives.

New Zealand had a net inflow of 9,700 permanent and long-term migrants for the year with 32,600 New Zealand citizens leaving but 42,300 non-New Zealand citizens arriving.

Comments from our readers

No comments yet