Trans-Tasman bubble lifts travel

The number of people crossing New Zealand's border has climbed since two-way quarantine-free travel opened with Australia on 19 April 2021, Stats NZ said today.

There were 85,900 border crossings in April 2021, made up of 47,000 arrivals and 38,900 departures. Total border crossings were well up compared with the earlier months of 2021, which averaged 26,300 border crossings a month.

"Despite this increase, arrivals and departures are significantly lower than levels before COVID-19, when border crossings were as high as 1.2 million in April," population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said.

"Provisional data for May 2021 show further increases in border crossings."

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

Australia leads travel

There were 70,000 border crossings to and from Australia in April 2021, made up of 39,900 arrivals and 30,200 departures.

"Trans-Tasman travel made up about 80 percent of all international travel in April 2021," Mr Islam said.

New Zealand citizens represented about 60 percent of arrivals from Australia and 67 percent of departures to Australia.

"With the introduction of quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia, the main reason for people travelling was to visit family and friends," Mr Islam said.

There were 27,700 visitor arrivals from Australia in April 2021 and just over three-quarters of those were visiting family and friends. There were 7,700 New Zealand-resident travellers who arrived back from Australia in April 2021. About 70 percent of these arrivals visited family and friends.

Travel increases with the Cook Islands

Provisional border crossing data up to 6 June 2021 show a small increase in travel with the Cook Islands each week since two-way quarantine-free travel opened on 17 May 2021. However, this is well below levels in the same period in 2019.

Stats NZ publishes provisional arrivals and departures data daily on the COVID-19 data portal and publishes provisional international travel data each week.

Net migration at levels last seen in 2013

Net migration was provisionally estimated at 6,300 in the year ended April 2021 compared with 90,000 in the year ended April 2020, a drop of 83,700.

There was a net migration gain of 15,800 New Zealand citizens and a net migration loss of 9,500 non-New Zealand citizens in the year ended April 2021.