New Zealand border crossings pass 1 million

January 2023 was the first month in which New Zealand saw over 1 million border crossings since COVID-19 related border and travel restrictions were introduced in March 2020, according to data released by Stats NZ today.

The nation experienced 514,100 arrivals and 497,000 departures in January 2023.

Commenting on the findings, Stats NZ Population Indicators Manager, Tehseen Islam stated “people have started to travel again. January 2023 border crossings are two-thirds of the 1.5 million that travelled in January 2020, before the pandemic.

“As COVID-19-related border restrictions were gradually eased from early 2022, border crossing numbers increased nearly every month throughout that year.”

Border crossings include all arrivals and departures, either for short-term trips or longer-term migration, by people living overseas or in New Zealand.

Visitor arrivals exceed quarter million
With 265,400 overseas visitor arrivals in January 2023, compared with 4,000 in January 2022, Islam noted “we are seeing overseas visitor numbers rebound, although they are about two-thirds of the level before the pandemic.”

The peak season for overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand is typically from December to February.

Australia remained the main source of visitor arrivals in January 2023, with about two in every five from there. This was followed by the USA (15%) and the United Kingdom (10%).

Visitor arrivals from China remained well down in January 2023, with 4,900 arriving compared with 50,300 in January 2020. China was New Zealand’s second largest source of visitor arrivals immediately before the pandemic.

Overseas visitor arrivals, by selected country of residence, January 2020 and 2023 (Overseas visitors are people living overseas, and who are in New Zealand for less than 12 months. This includes both New Zealand and non-New Zealand citizens.)

New Zealand-resident arrivals up
In January 2023, 234,900 New Zealand-residents returned from a short-term (less than 12 months) trip overseas. This is the highest since January 2020, just before the COVID-19-related border restrictions.

The January 2023 number is 72% of the 326,300 New Zealand-resident arrivals in January 2020.

Of all New Zealand-resident arrivals, 36% returned from Australia followed by India, the United States, and Fiji with 7% each.