3401.0 - Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, 2003  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 22/01/2004   
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KEY FIGURES



Oct 03
Nov 02
Nov
to Nov
to Nov
03
03
03
%
%
'000
change
change
Short-term visitor arrivals

Trend
434.3
0.8
..
Seasonally adjusted
439.3
2.8
..
Original
473.3
. .
8.3
Short-term resident departures
Trend
306.9
1.2
. .
Seasonally adjusted
312.1
3.1
. .
Original
287.2
. .
14.4




KEY POINTS


TREND ESTIMATES
  • Trend estimates in this issue take into account the impact of recent world events. See paragraphs 21 and 22 of the Explanatory Notes for more detail.
  • Short-term visitor arrivals continue to increase steadily with the trend estimate for November 2003 (434,300 movements) representing an increase of 0.8% compared to the previous month and followed an increase of 1.0% for September and October.
  • Short-term resident departures also continue to increase steadily. The trend estimate for November 2003 (306,900 movements) represents an increase of 1.2% from the previous month and followed an increase of 1.3% for September and October.
  • Short-term visitor arrivals and resident departures recorded the highest trend estimates since OAD data has been collected.


SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
  • The seasonally adjusted estimate of short-term visitor arrivals for November 2003 (439,300 movements) increased by 2.8% compared to the previous month and followed an increase of 10.2% for September 2003 and a decrease of 1.5% for October.
  • Short-term departures of Australian residents for November 2003 (312,100 movements) increased by 3.1% compared to October 2003 and followed an increase of 3.9% for September and a decrease of 0.1% for October.


ORIGINAL ESTIMATES
  • In original terms there were 473,300 short-term visitors to Australia in November 2003, an increase of 8.3% compared to November 2002 (437,000 movements).
  • There were 287,200 short-term departures of Australian residents, an increase of 14.4% compared to November 2002 (251,100 movements). These large increases reflect the impact that the Bali bombing (12 October 2002) had on short-term movement to and from Australia during November 2002.


NOTES


PRELIMINARY DATA

Preliminary estimates of short-term visitor arrivals for December 2003 will be available on the ABS website https://www.abs.gov.au on 27 January 2004. These estimates can be accessed by going to the home page and selecting Main Features (located under Statistical Products and Services) and then 34. Migration. Select Short-term Visitor Arrivals to Australia, Preliminary (cat. no. 3401.0.55.001). December 2003 will be the final issue under this title. Estimates will continue to be electronically published under the new title, Short-term Visitor Arrival Estimates, Australia (cat. no. 3401.0.55.001)., effective from January 2004.


DATA NOTES

For data quality issues see appendix 2 of this publication.

This publication contains movement data. Care should be taken when interpreting this movement data as 'people'. See paragraph 5 of the Explanatory Notes for more detail.

Calculations of percentage and numeric change as shown in the Key Points and/or Main Features of this publication are based on unrounded data. See paragraph 11 of Explanatory Notes for more detail.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Chrissy Beruldsen on Canberra (02) 6252 5640.


MAIN FEATURES


RECOVERY OF SHORT-TERM VISITOR ARRIVALS AND RESIDENT DEPARTURES FROM RECENT WORLD EVENTS

In seasonally adjusted terms, short-term visitor arrivals and short-term resident departures recorded the highest number of movements to date in 2003 (439,300 and 312,100 movements respectively). November 2003 short-term movements continue to indicate a regained confidence in overseas travel to and from Australia, after the down-turn experienced during March and April 2003. This downturn can be largely attributed to the emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) (March 2003), the anticipation and commencement of military action in Iraq, and recent international terrorist fears.

SHORT-TERM VISITOR ARRIVALS

In original terms, November 2003 recorded the highest monthly number of short-term visitors to Australia to date in 2003 (473,300 movements). The top ten source countries for short-term visitor arrivals for November 2003 and the percentage and numeric change compared to November 2002 are presented in the table below.


SHORT-TERM VISITOR ARRIVALS, Major Source Countries-November 2003

November
November
Numeric
Percentage
2003
2002
change
change
'000
'000
'000
%

New Zealand
77.7
66.1
11.5
17.5
United Kingdom
74.3
66.7
7.6
11.4
Japan
63.3
64.2
-0.9
-1.5
United States of America
37.0
35.6
1.4
3.9
Singapore
28.3
32.6
-4.3
-13.3
Korea
22.5
20.2
2.3
11.4
China
19.8
17.8
2.0
11.2
Malaysia
18.6
14.1
4.5
31.8
Germany
12.8
14.0
-1.2
-8.8
Indonesia
10.3
5.1
5.2
102.2


SHORT-TERM VISITOR DEPARTURES

There were 492,100 short-term visitor departures in November 2003. The Northern Territory (down 12%), South Australia (down 7%) and Western Australia (down 5%) experienced a decrease in overseas visitors compared to November 2002. Victoria experienced the largest numeric and percentage increase (25,900 movements or 38%) when compared to November 2002. There was also an increase in the number of visitors who stated that they spent the most time in the Australian Capital Territory (up 38%), Tasmania (up 23%), New South Wales (up 6%) and Queensland (up 1%).

SHORT-TERM RESIDENT DEPARTURES

November 2003 also recorded the highest monthly number of short-term resident departures to date in 2003 (287,200 movements). The top ten destinations of short-term resident departures for November 2003 and the percentage and numeric change compared to November 2002 are presented in the table below.


SHORT-TERM RESIDENT DEPARTURES, Major Destinations-November 2003

November
November
Numeric
Percentage
2003
2002
change
change
'000
'000
'000
%

United States of America
26.1
22.0
4.0
18.2
United Kingdom
18.2
16.8
1.4
8.1
Indonesia
16.9
7.9
9.0
114.1
Hong Kong (SAR of China)
13.0
13.2
-0.3
-1.9
Singapore
12.2
11.5
0.6
5.4
Fiji
11.5
10.6
0.9
8.4
Thailand
11.4
12.1
-0.6
-5.3
China
10.7
11.3
-0.6
-5.1
India
10.2
8.0
2.2
27.2
Malaysia
9.2
6.9
2.4
34.3



STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE

The above presentation of movements in estimates does not consider whether the change in movement is statistically significant. Care should be taken when interpreting the impact of numeric and/or percentage change. Please see the Standard Errors section under Quality Measures.


PERMANENT AND LONG-TERM MOVEMENTS

There were 8,740 permanent (settler) arrivals to Australia during November 2003, an increase of 21% compared to November 2002 (7,210 movements). Settlers born in the United Kingdom (20%) accounted for the largest proportion of permanent arrivals for November 2003. The second largest proportion of settlers were born in New Zealand (12%).

Statistics on OAD relate to the number of movements of travellers rather than the number of travellers. Therefore, care should be taken when using long-term arrivals data as it is known some individuals who travel multiple times in a year are counted each time they cross Australia's borders (see paragraph 5 of Explanatory Notes). Long-term arrivals in this publication are not an appropriate source of migration statistics. For further information refer to Australian Demographic Statistics (cat. no. 3101.0).

There were 4,200 Australian residents departing permanently from Australia during November 2003, an increase of 18% compared to November 2002 (3,550 movements).