More than 1m Australians visit New Zealand in past 12 months

• Source: Xinhua
• [20:16 June 22 2009]
• Comments

The number of visitors to New Zealand arriving from Australia in the past 12 months has exceeded a million for the first time, Statistics New Zealand said on Monday.

In releasing international travel and migration figures for the 12 months to May, Statistics New Zealand said 1.02 million visitor arrivals from Australia represent an increase of 35,500 arrivals, or 4 percent, on the previous 12 months. That is double the figure of 10 years ago.

Though arrivals to New Zealand from its nearest neighbor are on the rise, the global figure of 2.4 million visitor arrivals was down 64,200, or 3 percent, on the previous period.

In May, there were 9,200 more visitor arrivals from Australia compared with the previous May, but that was almost offset by 8, 600 fewer visitors from South Korea, China and Japan.

The number of New Zealand residents departing overseas in the past year was 163,700, a fall of 6 percent.