WELLINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand-resident traveller arrivals in January 2024 was a record for any January month, surpassing the pre-COVID levels, according to the statistics department Stats NZ on Thursday.
About 328,100 New Zealand-resident travellers -- people living in New Zealand and arriving back after an absence of less than 12 months -- arrived back in January 2024. This exceeded the pre-COVID numbers of 320,900 in January 2019 and 326,300 in January 2020, Stats NZ said.
"Arrivals are typically high in January as New Zealanders return from summer breaks, mostly from visiting friends and relatives, and holidaying abroad," said Stats NZ population indicators manager Tehseen Islam.
The record number of New Zealand-resident arrivals for any month was 345,100 in July 2018, Islam said.
In January 2024, Australia was the top destination for New Zealand-resident travellers, followed by China, the United States, Fiji, and India, he said.
There were 326,400 overseas visitor arrivals in January 2024, up 22 percent from January 2023, mainly from Australia, the United States, Britain and China, statistics showed.
"While outbound travel from New Zealand has returned to pre-pandemic levels, overseas visitor arrivals were still about 20 percent lower than they were," Islam said.
In the year ending in January 2024, overseas visitor arrivals totaled 3 million, compared with a peak of 3.9 million in the year ending in October 2019. ■
