According to Stats NZ, annual arrivals into New Zealand exceeded one million in August this year. This is the first time this has occurred since December 2020.
In the 12 months to August 2022, there were just under 1.3 million arrivals—400,300 more than the August 2021 year, but 7.1 million below
the August 2019 year before the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Arrivals to New Zealand have been increasing each month from March 2022, following the gradual relaxation of COVID-19 related border restrictions," said Tehseen Islam, manager of population indicators.
"For the August 2022 year, 94 percent of the arrivals came in the last six months."
Stats NZ
In the August 2022 year, there were 603,200 overseas resident arrivals and 660,500 New Zealand residents returning from short trips (less than 12 months) overseas.
In contrast, in the August 2019 year, there were four million overseas resident arrivals and 3.1 million New Zealand resident arrivals.
Arrivals include people living overseas making short-term trips or migrating long-term to the country and New Zealand-resident travellers returning from short-term trips overseas. Both groups include New Zealand and non-New Zealand citizens.
There were 1.3 million departures from New Zealand in the August 2022 year, including New Zealand residents making short-term trips or migrating long-term to other countries and people living overseas departing from short-term trips to New Zealand. Both groups include New Zealand and non-New Zealand citizens.
Holidays Growing In Popularity
For the August 2022 month, holidays were the main purpose of travel given by 50,900 (43 percent) of overseas visitor arrivals, followed by visiting friends and family (46,500 or 39 percent).
According to Island, August 2022 is the first month in almost two and half years where a holiday has been the most popular reason for travel by overseas visitors, rather than ‘visiting friends and relatives’, which had dominated the reason for travel from April 2020.
Provisional Net Migration Loss
In the 12 months ended August 2022, there was a provisional net migration loss of 11,000, comprising 59,600 migrant arrivals and 70,500 migrant departures.
Currently, both migrant arrivals and migrant departures are well below the levels experienced during the 2010s when they averaged 126,900 and 93,300 a year, respectively.
In the August 2022 year, there was a net loss of 10,300 New Zealand citizens and 600 non-New Zealand citizens.
After 27 months of mainly net migration gains of New Zealand citizens of up to 31,900, the past ten months have seen net migration losses of New Zealand citizens amounting to 11,400.
By comparison, after 24 months of net migration losses of around 30,900 non-New Zealand citizens, the last five months have seen net migration gains of around 6,000 non-New Zealand citizens.
New Zealand has usually had an annual net migration gain of non-New Zealand citizens and an annual net migration loss of New Zealand citizens.
