Wellington, Nov 15 (TIWN) Overseas visitor arrivals in New Zealand increased in September 2022 but are still below the numbers seen in the same month before the Covid-19 pandemic, the country's statistics department Stats NZ said on Tuesday.

There were 151,300 overseas visitor arrivals in September 2022, up from 129,800 in August 2022, Xinhua news agency quoted Stats NZ as saying.

About 70 per cent of the visitors were from Australia.

The September 2022 figure is 58 per cent of the 261,800 overseas visitor arrivals in September 2019, before the pandemic, statistics show.

Overseas visitor arrivals are people living overseas who are travelling to New Zealand for a stay of fewer than 12 months.

They include both New Zealand citizens and non-New Zealand citizens, according to Stats NZ.