MEDIA RELEASE
3 March 2015	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	28/2015

There were just over one million Australian short-term travellers departing in December 2014, according to preliminary estimates released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This follows preliminary estimates of 697,000 short-term resident departures in November and 701,300 in October 2014.

Conversely, preliminary estimates of short-term overseas visitor arrivals to Australia numbered 806,700 in December 2014. This follows preliminary estimates of 608,800 short-term visitor arrivals in November and 571,400 in October 2014.

A number of regular monthly releases of Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia (cat. no. 3401.0) have been delayed due to passenger card processing issues as announced by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP). These preliminary estimates have therefore been modelled by the ABS using other traveller information data from DIBP. No seasonally adjusted or trend data are available in this preliminary release.

With the resumed supply of Australian passenger card data to the ABS, the final, full set of monthly statistics for October, November and December 2014 will be released in May 2015. Preliminary estimates for January, February and March 2015 overseas arrivals and departures will be published on 2 June, with the final, full set of statistics being released for these months later in June. Normal monthly releases will resume with the May 2015 release on 7 July 2015.

Further information can be found in Preliminary Estimates of Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, Oct to Dec 2014 (cat. no. 3401.0.30.001) available for free from the ABS website - https://www.abs.gov.au.

Media notes:

• Short-term visitor arrivals are overseas visitors who intend to stay in Australia for less than 12 months.
• Short-term resident departures are Australian residents who intend to stay abroad for less than 12 months.
• When reporting ABS data the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.
• Media requests and interviews - contact the ABS Communications Section on 1300 175 070.