3401.0 - Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, Jun 2013 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 02/08/2013   
   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All
MEDIA RELEASE
2 August 2013
Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra Time)
138/2013

Australians make a record 8.4 million trips overseas in 2012-13

Australian residents made a record 8.4 million short-term trips overseas in 2012-13, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Bjorn Jarvis, Director of Demography, said this is up from 8 million trips in 2011-12 and is nearly three times the numbers from ten years ago.

"The most popular destination for Australian residents going overseas on short-term trips was New Zealand, with over 1.1 million trips across the Tasman occurring in the last financial year," Mr Jarvis said.

"The next most popular destinations were Indonesia (910,000 movements), the USA (907,000), Thailand (625,000) and the UK (508,000) . These top five destinations alone accounted for just under half (49 per cent) of all short-term resident departures for the year.

"However other countries in the top 10 had higher growth rates. An extra 46,000 Australians visited Singapore in 2012-13 (an increase of 16 per cent) with the next largest increase in departure numbers going to the United States of America (11 per cent).

"The most frequently cited reason for journey was for a holiday, making up over half (58 per cent) of all short-term resident departures. Other common reasons were visiting friends and relatives (23 per cent) and business (10 per cent).

During 2012–13, Australian residents on short-term trips stated their average time overseas was 14 days.

"Short-term visitor arrivals recorded 6.3 million movements in 2012–13. Although the highest on record, this has remained relatively stable over recent years. Short-term visitor arrivals to Australia in June were bolstered by spectators for the recent British and Irish Lions rugby union tour.

"Up until 2006-07 it was generally the case that there were more short-term visitors arriving in Australia than short-term residents departing. However, the opposite has been true since 2007–08, and in 2012–13 there were 2.2 million more short-term residents departing Australia than short-term visitors arriving," Mr Jarvis said.

Further information can be found in Overseas Arrivals and Departures, June 2013 (cat. no. 3401.0) available for free from the ABS web site (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.
  • Figures in this Media Release are based on original series.
  • Please ensure when reporting on ABS data that you attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.