NZ border crossings down as Trans-Tasman travel bubble deflates

Wellington, Sep 10 Arrivals and departures across the New Zealand border fell in July 2021 from the previous two months, due to ongoing interruptions to two-way quarantine-free travel with Australia, the country's statistics department Stats NZ said on Friday.

Total movements across the New Zealand border in July 2021 were 147,900, down from 189,500 in May 2021 and 175,500 in June 2021, Xinhua news agency quoted Stats NZ as saying.

Trans-Tasman travel made up almost three-quarters of all New Zealand border crossings in July 2021, it said.

"The Trans-Tasman travel bubble has been the main driver of border crossings since it started in mid-April 2021," population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said in a statement.

The fewer border crossings seen in July 2021 reflect ongoing pauses in travel from some Australian states and territories in July, and the suspension of quarantine-free travel from Australia to New Zealand in late July, Islam said.

Provisional data for August 2021 shows a further fall in the number of border crossings. This also reflects the suspension of quarantine-free travel from New Zealand to Australia in mid-August, he said.

In July 2021, 36,500 New Zealand residents returned from a short-term trip overseas. This is well below the 340,200 arrivals in July 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic, statistics show.

Of those who specified the main country visited in July 2021, 63 per cent (22,300) were returning from a trip to Australia and 30 per cent (10,700) from the Cook Islands, Stats NZ said.

About 70 per cent of the New Zealand-resident arrivals returning from Australia in July 2021 were visiting friends and relatives, and 16 per cent travelled for holiday and vacation, it said.

Of those returning from the Cook Islands, 92 per cent were on holiday and vacation, and 5 per cent were visiting friends and relatives, the statistics show.

Net migration was provisionally estimated at 4,400 in the year ending July 2021 compared with 78,500 in the year ending July 2020, a drop of 74,100, Islam said.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor