Feb 2, 2018  -  For the December 2017 year, both overseas visitors and New Zealand residents had record numbers of arrivals and departures, Stats NZ said today.

In the last calendar year 3.73 million overseas visitors came to New Zealand, 6.7 percent more than in 2016. Just over half of these overseas visitors were holidaymakers, and 30 percent travelled to New Zealand to visit friends and family.

“The record number of overseas visitors in 2017 is about the same as the number of residents living in the North Island as at 30 June 2017,” population statistics senior manager Peter Dolan said. “Annual overseas visitor numbers have been generally rising since mid-2013.”

New Zealand residents took a record 2.9 million trips overseas in 2017, 9.3 percent more than in 2016. New Zealanders holidaying overseas accounted for 44 percent of all resident departures.

Australia was the top source of visitors and the top destination for New Zealand-resident travellers in 2017. Over the year, 40 percent of overseas visitors were from Australia and 45 percent of all trips by New Zealand residents were to Australia. The second-highest source of visitors was China (11 percent).

Continue here to read the full article on the STATSNZ website   ||  February 2, 2018   |||