In the month of April 2006 there were 191,648 international visitor arrivals, up 9.7% (16,900) on April 2005. It is the highest arrivals for an April month, in particular visitors from Australia, UK, USA and China.

The different timing of Easter holidays this year being in April as opposed to in March last year has distorted the performance in these two months (March down 3.0% and April up 9.7%) with the combined March-April period being 2.4% up on the same period last year.

Visitors from Australia (up 8,800 or 12.5%), UK (up 3,600 or 20.4%), USA (up 2,900 or 19.9%) and China (up 2,900 or 41.7%) recorded the largest increases in April 2006.

In contrast, there were fewer visitors from Japan (down 3,300 or -27.0%) and Thailand (down 1,100 or -22.1%).

There were increases in VFR (up 12,700 or 26.2%) and Holiday (up 6,400 or 7.8%) visitors in April 2006 compared to April 2005. There were fewer Business (down 1,200 or -5.3%) and other (down 780 or -3.8%) visitors.

In April 2006, the average length of stay of visitors was 16.7 days, merely 0.1 of a day less than in April 2005. The total number of visitor days was up 9.0% (264,000 days) to 3.19 million days.

There were 2,377 flight-arrivals in April 2006, 52 flights fewer than in April 2005.

For the year ended April 2006, there were 2.396 million international visitor arrivals, up 17,600 or 0.7% on the previous year. Total visitor days were up 3.3% to 48.0 million, with the average length of stay up by 0.4 of a day to 19.7 days.

In the month of April 2006, New Zealand residents undertook 162,790 short-term overseas trips, up 3,200 trips or 2.0% on the previous year.

There were more trips to Fiji (up 880 or 11.9%), Italy (up 760 or 108.0%), UK (up 670 or 9.0%), Samoa (up 640 or 40.1%) and Thailand (up 630 or 36.3%).

There were fewer trips to the USA (down 850 or -9.5%) and China (down 630 or -15.4).

The average length of trips in April 2006 was 19.1 days, merely 0.2 of a day less than last year.

The total number of trips undertaken for the year ended April 2006 was 1.871 million, up 74,000 trips or 4.1% on the previous year.

The research is conducted by New Zealand Tourism Research Council.