Overseas travel trends: 7 insights from 2025-26
Overseas Arrivals and Departures – 2025-26 financial year
Overseas Arrivals and Departures data shows trends in travel to and from Australia.
1. Travel to Australia is on the rise but hasn’t reached its pre-COVID-19 peak
Short-term visitor arrivals to Australia rose by 8 per cent over 2025-26 to 9.1 million.
While visits to Australia have risen for the 5th year in a row, they are still 3 per cent lower than the peak number of visitors to Australia, which was 9.3 million in 2018-19.
2. Australia is a great place for a holiday
Holiday was again the most popular reason for visiting Australia with 45 per cent of visitors here for a holiday. This was followed by 32 per cent of visitors coming to visit family or friends, and 6 per cent whose reason for visiting was education.
3. New Zealanders love a trip across the ditch
New Zealanders took 1.4 million trips to Australia this year, more than from any other country. They were also the most common travellers ten years ago.
The top five countries visitors came to Australia from were New Zealand, China, the USA, the UK and Singapore.
| Top countries where visitors came from | Number of trips in 2025-26 | Proportion of total (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. New Zealand | 1,422,790 | 16 |
| 2. China(a) | 1,127,110 | 12 |
| 3. USA | 755,500 | 8 |
| 4. UK | 751,420 | 8 |
| 5. Singapore | 448,310 | 5 |
| Total (all countries) | 9,101,120 | 100 |
(a) Excludes SARs and Taiwan.
4. Australia is the place to be for Gen Z
25 to 29 year-olds made up the largest age group of visitor arrivals over this year.
China was the top country of residence for this age group – making up 15 per cent of visitors from this age group.
5. Aussies have caught the travel bug
At 12.7 million, the number of trips Aussies took overseas has increased by 4 per cent in the last year. This is also 32 per cent higher than ten years ago.
This year, around 3 out of 5 Aussies who went overseas were travelling for a holiday.
6. Indonesia is the top spot for Aussies heading overseas
Indonesia was the most popular destination for Aussies travelling overseas, making up 14 per cent of trips. Ten years ago, New Zealand was the top destination country and Indonesia was second.
| Top destination countries for Aussies | Number of trips in 2025-26 | Proportion of total (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Indonesia | 1,777,270 | 14 |
| 2. New Zealand | 1,489,460 | 12 |
| 3. Japan | 992,550 | 8 |
| 4. China(a) | 743,960 | 6 |
| 5. USA | 679,600 | 5 |
| Total (all countries) | 12,711,650 | 100 |
(a) Excludes SARs and Taiwan.
7. Aussie trips to Japan have doubled since before the COVID-19 pandemic
The number of Aussies travelling to Japan has increased by 105 per cent since 2018-19, with 82 per cent travelling for a holiday.
Trips to Vietnam have also increased by 76 per cent, while trips to the UK and the USA have decreased since before the pandemic (down 9 per cent and 37 per cent respectively).
Media notes
Overseas arrivals and departures (OAD) data, including permanent and long-term movements should not be used as a measure of overseas migration. For more information, see Use Net Overseas Migration statistics to understand overseas migration, not Overseas Arrivals and Departures.
For accurate insights into overseas migration, please refer to the ABS’s official overseas migration statistics:
- Short-term trips are those with a duration of stay of less than 12 months.
- For any media requests, email media@abs.gov.au or call 1300 175 070 (9am-5pm Canberra time) with your questions and deadline.
- Please attribute the 'Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)' when using our data.
- Explore our Data Crash Course for guidance on finding and interpreting ABS data, and subscribe to our release notifications to stay updated.
- Information on how the ABS will release market sensitive releases during a website or API outage.