International passenger movements to and from New Zealand numbered 8.73 million in 2006, Statistics New Zealand said Tuesday.

It said this is an increase of 0.5 percent from the 8.69 million arrivals and departures in 2005.

In 2006, 55 percent of all passenger movements were overseas visitors to New Zealand, 43 percent were New Zealand residents on short-term overseas trips and two percent were permanent and long- term migrants.

Four out of every five visitors to New Zealand in 2006 came from the top ten source countries.

The leading source country was Australia (38 percent of all visitors), followed by the United Kingdom (12 percent of all visitors).

Two-thirds of visitors stayed two weeks or less and just 15 percent stayed for more than four weeks.

Australia was also the most visited destination by New Zealand residents, with half of all short-term overseas trips in 2006 to that country, said Statistics New Zealand.

The second most visited destination was Fiji, accounting for 6 percent of all trips.

However, in 2006 there were fewer trips to both Australia (down 1 percent) and Fiji (down 3 percent) than in 2005. Two-thirds of trips by New Zealand residents were for two weeks or less, while 17 percent were away for more than four weeks, said Statistics New Zealand.

Source: Xinhua