May 2019 saw 219,300 visitor arrivals and 235,200 New Zealand resident arrivals, Stats NZ announced earlier this week.
"May is typically a quiet month for international travel to New Zealand," says population indicators manager Tehseen Islam.
Compared with May 2018, visitor arrivals were down 1.2 per cent and New Zealand resident arrivals were up 1.5 per cent.
The fall in visitor arrivals was driven by decreases in arrivals from China (down 2,800) and India (down 1,900) compared with May 2018. Visitor arrivals from India were at high levels in May 2018, only 0.9 per cent lower than the peak in December 2017. The drop in arrivals from India may reflect less international travel due to the election in India held in April and May this year.
Rises in arrivals of New Zealand residents from trips to Australia (up 2100), the United Kingdom (up 1500), and the Philippines (up 1000) were partly offset this month by falls in arrivals from trips to the USA (down 1800) and the Cook Islands (down 1000).
Annual visitor arrivals remain stable while New Zealand resident travel up across the board.
Annual visitor arrivals for the May 2019 year remained stable compared with the year ended May 2018, with 3.9 million visitors arriving from a variety of source countries.
Annual visitor arrivals from Australia (up 34,400) and the USA (up 27,400) saw the largest increase but were partly offset by a fall in arrivals from China (down 26,100) and the United Kingdom (down 17,200).
More than three million New Zealanders arrived home from overseas trips in the May 2019 year, with numbers of resident arrivals from nearly all main destinations rising.
The largest rises in annual New Zealand resident arrivals were from Australia (up 43,100) and Indonesia (up 23,800). The rise in New Zealand resident travel to Indonesia coincides with an increase in direct flights to Bali over the past year. Bali is a popular holiday destination for New Zealanders.
South Africa was the only main destination to see a fall in the number of trips by New Zealand residents, down 700 (4.1 per cent) when compared with the May 2018 year.
