Visitor arrivals in New Zealand increased by 3% in January 2015 to 302,400, compared with a year ago, according to official figures from New Zealand.
The data shows that arrivals from Australia drove the increase in visitor numbers, with more holidaymakers, people visiting friends and relatives, and business travellers,
In comparison, the number of visitors arriving from China fell relative to January last year and population statistics manager Vina Cullum said this could be because of a change in timing of the Chinese New Year.
Australia is New Zealand’s biggest source of visitors and also contributed the biggest annual increase in visitors, up 31,100 to 1.26 million in the January 2015 year. China, the United States, and the United Kingdom were the next biggest sources of visitors in the January 2015 year.
New Zealand resident travellers departed on 133,800 overseas trips in January 2015, up 5% from January 2014. The biggest increases were in departures to the United States, up 1,700, and Fiji up 1,400.
The annual increase was 4% with New Zealand residents taking 2.28 million overseas trips in the January 2015 year, mostly to Australia with 1.09 million trips.
Overall the Net inflow of migrants increased to a new peak in January. There was a seasonally adjusted net gain, more arrivals than departures, of 5,500 migrants in January 2015.
‘This was a new all-time high, surpassing the October 2014 peak of 5,200 and was the third time in the last six months that the previous record net gain of migrants has been surpassed,’ explained Cullum.
Cullum pointed out that the new annual record was driven by both more arrivals with a new high of 111,500 and fewer departures.
New Zealand’s biggest net gain of migrants in the January 2015 year was from India at 10,800. Some 9,100 of the 12,000 migrants arriving from India came on student visas.
The other biggest net gains in migrants were from China at 7,600, the United Kingdom at 5,100, and the Philippines at 3,800.