There were 239,200 visitor arrivals to New Zealand in March 2007, up five percent from 227, 000 arrivals in March 2006, said the official Statistics New Zealand Friday.

It said more visitors arrived from China, Australia, the United Kingdom and South Africa.

There were fewer visitor arrivals from Japan and the United States.

There were 2.445 million visitor arrivals in the March 2007 year, with more visitors from China (up 23,600), and Australia (up 43,300), but fewer from Japan (down 23,100).

Permanent and long-term (PLT) departures exceeded arrivals by 1, 000 in March 2007, compared with a zero net PLT migration balance in March 2006, said Statistics New Zealand.

The net PLT outflow to Australia was 2,800 in March 2007, up on 1,700 in the previous March.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, there was a net PLT inflow of 600 in March 2007.

Source: Xinhua