3401.0 - Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, 2004  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 12/05/2004   
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KEY FIGURES


Feb 04
Mar 03
Mar
to Mar
to Mar
04
04
04
%
%
'000
change
change
Short-term visitor arrivals

Trend
422.6
-0.8
. .
Seasonally adjusted
421.5
0.5
. .
Original
432.3
. .
10.1
Short-term resident departures
Trend
346.3
0.9
. .
Seasonally adjusted
347.6
3.4
. .
Original
329.7
. .
34.3


Graph - Visitor arrivals, short term
Graph - Resident departures, short term


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.
  • The trend estimate of short-term visitor arrivals to Australia for March 2004 (422,600 movements) decreased by 0.8% compared with February 2004 and followed decreases of 0.5% for January and 0.6% for February 2004.
  • Short-term resident departures for March 2004 (346,300 movements) continued the steady monthly increase in the series since April 2003, and represents an increase of 0.9% compared with February 2004.


SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
  • The seasonally adjusted estimate of short-term visitor arrivals for March 2004 (421,500 movements) increased by 0.5% compared with the previous month and followed decreases of 3.1% for January and 1.3% for February 2004.
  • Short-term departures of Australian residents for March 2004 (347,600 movements) increased by 3.4% compared with February 2004 and followed an increase of 1.5% for January and a decrease of 2.2% for February 2004.


ORIGINAL ESTIMATES
  • In original terms there were 432,300 short-term visitor arrivals to Australia during March 2004, an increase of 10.1% compared with March 2003 (392,500 movements).
  • There were 329,700 short-term departures of Australian residents, an increase of 34.3% compared with March 2003 (245,500 movements).
  • These large increases reflect the significant impact that world events had on short-term travel to and from Australia during the first half of 2003.


NOTES


EARLY ESTIMATES

Early estimates of short-term visitor arrivals for April 2004 will be available on the ABS website https://www.abs.gov.au on 14 May 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 Arrival Estimates, Australia (cat. no. 3401.0.55.001).


DATA NOTES

For data quality issues see the appendix 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 the Explanatory Notes for more detail.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

As of March 2004 a number of contact detail questions have been included on the incoming passenger card.


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 or c.beruldsen@abs.gov.au.


MAIN FEATURES

SHORT-TERM VISITOR ARRIVALS

There were 432,300 short-term visitor arrivals to Australia during March 2004. This brought the total for the 2004 March quarter to 1,307,300 movements, an increase of 7% compared with the 2003 March quarter (1,216,600 movements).

The top ten source countries for short-term visitor arrivals during March 2004 and the percentage and numeric change compared with March 2003 are presented in the table below.

SHORT-TERM VISITOR ARRIVALS, Major Source Countries-March 2004

March
March
Numeric
Percentage
2004
2003
change
change
'000
'000
'000
%

New Zealand
76.3
58.2
18.1
31.0
United Kingdom
68.2
61.8
6.4
10.4
Japan
63.7
59.9
3.8
6.4
United States of America
37.9
37.4
0.4
1.2
Singapore
18.5
21.0
-2.4
-11.5
China
17.5
14.3
3.3
22.9
Korea
15.2
16.3
-1.1
-6.8
Malaysia
13.7
9.8
4.0
40.5
Germany
13.4
13.3
0.2
1.1
Hong Kong (SAR of China)
10.5
9.7
0.8
8.1



SHORT-TERM RESIDENT DEPARTURES

There were 329,700 short-term resident departures during March 2004. This brought the total for the 2004 March quarter to 897,600 movements, representing an increase of 26% compared with the 2003 March quarter (711,000 movements).

The top ten destinations of short-term resident departures during March 2004 and the percentage and numeric change compared with March 2003 are presented in the table below.

SHORT-TERM RESIDENT DEPARTURES, Major Destinations-March 2004

March
March
Numeric
Percentage
2004
2003
change
change
'000
'000
'000
%

New Zealand
72.2
58.1
14.1
24.2
Indonesia
26.1
12.4
13.7
111.0
United States of America
25.8
18.4
7.4
40.4
United Kingdom
24.1
18.4
5.7
30.8
China
14.5
12.0
2.5
21.1
Hong Kong (SAR of China)
13.2
9.8
3.4
34.7
Fiji
13.1
8.7
4.4
50.1
Thailand
12.4
10.2
2.2
21.6
Singapore
11.5
10.7
0.8
7.4
Malaysia
11.0
7.8
3.1
40.1



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.


SHORT-TERM VISITOR DEPARTURES

During the 2004 March quarter there were 1,408,800 visitors who departed Australia after a stay of less than 12 months, up 6% on the 2003 March quarter (1,329,800 movements). Comparing the 2004 March quarter with the corresponding period in 2003, visitors who spent the most time in New South Wales and Western Australia declined 4% and Northern Territory declined 9%. Increases occurred for Victoria (up 31%), Queensland (up 9%), Tasmania (up 33%) and South Australia (up 23%).


TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS

Care should be taken when comparing estimates over time, particularly when using original estimates for time-series analysis. The original series is affected by such world events as the Bali bombing, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the anticipation and commencement of military action in Iraq, which resulted in fewer than usual visitor arrivals and resident departures during the first half of 2003. The ABS encourages the use of the trend series for time series analysis as it reveals the underlying behaviour of the series without the influence of such events. See paragraphs 21 and 22 of the Explanatory Notes for more detail.


PERMANENT AND LONG-TERM MOVEMENTS

There were 9,330 permanent (settler) arrivals to Australia during March 2004, an increase of 11% compared with March 2003 (8,410 movements). Settlers born in New Zealand accounted for the largest proportion (14%) of permanent arrivals for March 2004, followed by the United Kingdom (13%) and China (10%).

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 the 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 5,180 Australian residents departing permanently from Australia during March 2004, an increase of 23% compared with March 2003 (4,230 movements).