21 Apr 2016

Record arrivals touch down in March

11:54 am on 21 April 2016

The numbers of people coming to live or take a holiday in New Zealand are at record levels.

A woman with a backpack pulls a suitcase through an airport.

Photo: 123RF

Official figures for last month show a record 67,600 permanent and long term migrants - the 20th consecutive monthly record.

Statistics New Zealand said a quarter of the migrants were New Zealanders returning home, but the influx of foreign students, and people on working holidays were also driving the increases.

A strong surge of Australian, Chinese and American visitors and the fact Easter was in March this year, drove the number of tourists to a monthly record.

The number of tourists for the 12 months to March hit an all time high of 3.26 million, up 10 percent on the year before.