WELLINGTON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese visitors made up 11 percent of New Zealand's total visitor arrivals in the March 2018 year, the statistics department Stats NZ said on Tuesday.

A new high count of 3.82 million visitors arrived in New Zealand in the March 2018 year, up 8 percent year on year, it said.

Two-thirds of this rise were due to more visitors from Australia, China, Britain and the United States, population insights senior manager Brooke Theyers said in a statement, adding that over half of all overseas visitors were holidaymakers, and over one-quarter were visiting friends and family.

The top source of visitor arrivals in the March 2018 year was Australia, at 37 percent of all visitor arrivals. China, the U.S. and Britain were also top sources of visitor arrivals, Theyers said.

About 11 percent of the Chinese visitors were visiting friends or relatives, and 80 percent of them were holidaying, Stats NZ said.

In the March 2018 year, New Zealand residents set a new annual record of 2.89 million overseas trips for any 12-month period, with trips to China, Fiji, Britain and Australia seeing the largest rises, Theyers said.