1. For further information about the data, including updates or changes, see the Explanatory Notes section of this issue and the related Appendices such as Data Quality Issues.
2. Short-term arrival movements are based on a sample and are subject to sampling error. See paragraphs 10 and 11 of the Explanatory Notes section of this issue.
3. Occasionally situations occur that necessitate breaks being applied to the trend series. For an overview of the breaks currently included in the trend series, see paragraph 29 of the Explanatory Notes section of this issue.
4. Investigations by the ABS and the Department of Home Affairs identified quality issues with the capture and coding of state or territory of stay/residence from incoming passenger cards from March 2018 onwards. A resolution to these issues was implemented and data re-processed. Revised OAD data from March to May 2018 has been released in the June 2018 issue. All time series spreadsheets and data files have been revised. For further information about the revisions, see the end of the Data Quality Issues (Appendix) on the left hand side under the Explanatory Notes tab.
5. In July 2017, the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs introduced changes to the incoming passenger card. The change was to capture the main reason for journey for both residents returning, and visitors arriving in Australia. The ABS has noted changes in the distribution of responses to the question on main reason for journey for short-term visitor arrivals in recent months, notably an increase in the number of persons reporting that the main reason for travel was visiting friends and relatives and a decline in the number of persons reporting the main reason was a holiday. Investigations by Home Affairs has made changes to the process of coding main reason for journey from the new incoming passenger card, and to further assist in improving quality the imputation for main reason for journey was reviewed and improved by the ABS.
6. In June 2018, the ABS identified a data quality issue with the country of residence of Bangladesh being high for short-term visitor movements. There was a corresponding decrease for Singapore and Malaysia. This is being investigated further by Home Affairs in collaboration with the ABS. Until the issue is resolved, users should exercise caution when analysing recent statistics for country of residence of Bangladesh, Singapore and Malaysia for short-term visitor arrivals and short-term visitor departures. Adjustments have been applied to the seasonally adjusted and trend series for short-term visitor arrivals for Bangladesh for May to July 2018.
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