3401.0 - Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, 2003  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 14/11/2003   
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KEY FIGURES


Aug 03
Sep 02
Sep
to Sep
to Sep
03
03
03
%
%
'000
change
change
Short-term visitor arrivals
Trend
423.9
0.7
. .
Seasonally adjusted
430.6
9.3
. .
Original
385.6
. .
7.5
Short-term resident departures
Trend
295.6
0.6
. .
Seasonally adjusted
301.0
3.1
. .
Original
354.3
. .
0.8

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.
  • Short-term visitor arrivals continue to increase steadly with the trend estimate for September 2003 (423,900 movements) representing an increase of 0.7% compared to the previous month and followed an increase of 0.8% for July and August.
  • Short-term resident departures also continue to increase steadily. The trend estimate for September 2003 (295,600 movements) represents an increase of 0.6% from the previous month and followed an increase of 0.7% for July and August.


SEASONALLY ADJUSTED
  • In seasonally adjusted terms short-term visitor arrivals for September (430,600 movements) increased by 9.3% compared to August 2003. This increase may be attributable to visitors and participants beginning to arrive for the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
  • Short-term departures of Australian residents for September 2003 (301,000 movements) increased by 3.1% compared to August 2003. This monthly increase is the same as that experienced in August (3.1%).


ORIGINAL ESTIMATES
  • In original terms there were 385,600 short-term visitors to Australia in September 2003, an increase of 7.5 compared to September 2002 (358,600 movements).
  • There were 354,300 short-term departures of Australian residents, an increase of 0.8% compared to September 2002 (351,600 movements).


NOTES


PRELIMINARY DATA

Preliminary estimates of short-term visitor arrivals for October 2003 will be available on the ABS website http:\\www.abs.gov.au on 14 November 2003. 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).


DATA NOTES

For data quality issues see appendix 2.

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.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

There is no special article in this issue.

Trend estimates in this issue have been revised to take into account the impact of recent world events. See paragraphs 21 and 22 of the 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 Olivia Agius on Canberra (02) 6252 5640.


MAIN FEATURES


RUGBY WORLD CUP 2003

Seasonally adjusted estimates of short-term visitor arrivals for September 2003 were up 9% compared to the previous month. The increase appears to be a result of Australia hosting the 2003 Rugby World Cup with increases in arrivals from participating countries such as New Zealand, the United Kingdom and South Africa.

The Rugby World Cup is a one-off, non-seasonal event and hence its impact can be seen in the seasonally adjusted series. The trend series smoothes out such one-off events from the seasonally adjusted series, and reveals the underlying behaviour of the series without the influence of such events.


SHORT-TERM VISITOR ARRIVALS

In original terms, the top ten source countries for short-term visitor arrivals for September 2003 and the percentage and numeric change compared to September 2002 are presented in the table below.


SHORT-TERM VISITOR ARRIVALS, Major Source Countries-September 2003
September
Numeric
Percentage
2003
2002
change
change
'000
'000
'000
%
New Zealand
85.9
80.9
5.0
6.2
Japan
53.0
52.8
0.2
0.5
United Kingdom
43.3
39.6
3.7
9.3
United States of America
27.1
26.4
0.7
2.6
Singapore
19.1
17.4
1.7
9.7
Malaysia
18.3
15.8
2.5
16.1
China
15.0
12.9
2.1
16.2
Korea
14.4
10.7
3.7
34.5
Germany
11.9
11.6
0.4
3.1
Hong Kong (SAR of China)
9.3
9.3
-
0.3
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)


SHORT-TERM VISITOR DEPARTURES

There were 359,700 short-term visitor departures in September 2003. With the exception of the Northern Territory and Tasmania, compared to September 2002, all states experienced an increase in overseas visitors. Victoria experienced the largest numeric increase (10,100 movements or 21%) compared to September 2002 and South Australia experienced the largest percentage increase (30% or 1,800 movements).


SHORT-TERM RESIDENT DEPARTURES

In original terms, the top ten destinations of short-term resident departures for September 2003 and the percentage and numeric change compared to September 2002 are presented in the table below.


SHORT-TERM RESIDENT DEPARTURES, Major Destinations-September 2003
September
September
Numeric
Percentage
2003
2002
change
change
'000
'000
'000
%
New Zealand
61.4
52.2
9.2
17.7
United Kingdom
35.6
33.5
2.1
6.3
United States of America
30.7
31.2
-0.5
-1.6
Indonesia
21.1
32.1
-11.0
-34.4
Fiji
16.3
12.7
3.6
28.3
China
15.7
17.1
-1.4
-8.4
Hong Kong (SAR of China)
12.6
11.7
0.9
8.0
Thailand
12.5
18.3
-5.8
-31.7
Italy
11.9
12.6
-0.7
-5.3
Singapore
11.8
12.6
-0.8
-6.3


PERMANENT AND LONG-TERM MOVEMENTS

There were 9,010 permanent (settler) arrivals to Australia during September 2003, an increase of 19% (1,440 movements) compared to September 2002. Settlers born in the United Kingdom (20%) accounted for the largest proportion of permanent arrivals for September 2003. The second largest proportion of settlers were born in New Zealand (10%).

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 3,990 Australian residents departing permanently from Australia during September 2003.