Record month for visitor arrivals

Visitor arrivals numbered 341,300 in December 2009, the highest total ever recorded for a month, Statistics NZ has said.

The figure is up 19,100 (six per cent) from the previous high of 322,200 in December 2008. Visitor arrivals have increased in seven of the last nine months, compared with the same months of the previous year.

The main contributor to the December increase was 14,000 more visitors from Australia, continuing large increases seen since April 2009. There were also more visitors from the US (up 2,800) and Singapore (up 1,200), but fewer from China (down 2,300).

There were 2.458 million visitor arrivals in the December 2009 year, similar to the 2.459 million in 2008 and fewer than the 2.466 million in 2007.

Visitors from Australia were up 106,500 (11 per cent) for the year, but this was offset by large decreases in visitors from the UK, Korea, Japan, the US, and China.

NZ residents departed on 184,500 short-term overseas trips in December 2009, down 2,800 (one per cent) from December 2008. For the December 2009 year, short-term departures of NZ residents numbered 1.918 million, down 48,800 (two per cent) from the previous year.