Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia

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Statistics on international travel, including tourism trips, arriving in and departing from Australia. Focusing on short-term trips (less than 1 year)

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Reference period
August 2020
Released
13/10/2020
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Release date and time
13/10/2020 11:30am AEDT

Key statistics

August 2020 original estimates for short-term trips (less than 1 year):

  • Overseas visitor arrivals to Australia decreased 14.0% since the previous month to 3,030 trips
  • Australian resident returns from overseas decreased 21.5% since the previous month to 8,070 trips.
1.1 Monthly change - Original estimates
Jul 2020 (no.)Aug 2020 (no.)Jul 2020 to Aug 2020 (% change)
Visitor arrivals - short-term trips3,5303,030-14.0
Resident returns - short-term trips10,2808,070-21.5

These statistics report on the number of international border crossings rather than the number of people. Most data in this release are rounded to the nearest 10. As a result, sums of components may not add exactly to totals.

Changes due to COVID-19

The pandemic has continued to disrupt international travel. Trend estimates were suspended from February 2020 and seasonally adjusted estimates suspended from April 2020 due to the outbreak. Original estimates are still available and used in the analysis below. For more information, see the Recent changes Section.

Visitor arrivals

Compares international visitor arrivals each month by source country and change at the state and territory level. Analysis in this section is undertaken on short-term trips (less than 1 year).

Key findings

For visitor arrivals to Australia:

  • A total of 3,030 short-term trips were recorded.
  • This was a decrease of 99.6% when compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.
  • The USA was the largest source country, accounting for 15% of all visitor arrivals.

Source countries

The three leading source countries were:

  • The USA (450 trips)
  • New Zealand (370)
  • The UK (310).

Details

                                                                          

State or territory of stay

All travellers are asked their intended address in Australia upon arrival. There were decreases of over 99% across all states and territories when compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

Details

Resident returns

Compares international resident returns each month by destination country and change at the state and territory level. Analysis in this section is undertaken on short-term trips (less than 1 year).

Key findings

For residents returning from overseas:

  • A total of 8,070 short-term trips were recorded. The lowest on record.
  • This was a decrease of 99.1% when compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.
  • The USA was the most popular destination country, accounting for 13% of all resident returns.

Destination countries

The three leading destination countries were:

  • The USA (1,060 trips)
  • New Zealand (900)
  • The UK (850).

Details

                                                                                                                        

State or territory of residence

All travellers are asked their intended address in Australia upon arrival. There were decreases of over 98% across all states and territories when compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

Details

Arrivals - state and territory

This analysis compares international visitor arrivals each month by source country for each state and territory. The additional information is being provided during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis in this section is undertaken on short-term trips (less than 1 year) unless otherwise stated.

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

South Australia

Western Australia

Tasmania

Northern Territory

Australian Capital Territory

Arrivals - international students

This analysis compares international student arrivals each month by visa type for each state and territory and nationally. It includes both those whose intended duration is short-term (less than 1 year) or long-term (1 year or more). The additional information is being provided during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Australia

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

South Australia

Western Australia

Tasmania

Northern Territory

Australian Capital Territory

Visitor arrivals - Financial year - 2019-20

Compares annual international travel arrivals over time by source country, by state and territory, by age and sex, by main reason for journey and by median duration of trip. All analysis in this section is done on short-term trips (less than 1 year).

Key findings

Visitors arriving in Australia in 2019-20.

  • There were 6.7 million visitor arrivals, down 27.9% on the previous year and the lowest since 2013-14
  • New Zealand was the largest source country, with over 1 million visitors nationally, and the largest for Qld and Tas.
  • China was the largest for NSW, Vic., SA and the ACT, with almost 900,000 visitors nationally
  • There were more visits by women than men. Ten years earlier, the opposite was true.
  • The main reason for travel was holiday (46.0%)
  • Nationally, the median duration of stay in Australia was 12 days.

Details

Resident returns - Financial year - 2019-20

Compares annual international travel for resident returns over time by destination country, by state and territory, by age and sex, by main reason for journey and by median duration of trip. All analysis in this section is done on short-term trips (less than 1 year).

Key findings

Australian residents returning to Australia in 2019-20.

  • There were 8.6 million resident returns from overseas, down 23.8% on the previous year and the lowest since 2012-13 
  • New Zealand continued to be the leading destination country for Australians travelling overseas, with 1.1 million trips
  • New Zealand was the leading destination for those living in NSW, Vic., Qld, Tas. and the ACT and Indonesia for those in SA, WA and the NT
  • The main reason for travel was holiday (57.0%)
  • Nationally, the median duration away was 15 days.

Details

Recent changes

Suspension of seasonally adjusted and trend estimates from Apr and Feb 2020

Seasonally adjusted estimates have been suspended from April 2020 for all Short-term Visitor Arrival (STVA) and Short-term Resident Return (STRR) series due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international travel.

Trend estimates have been suspended from February 2020 for all STVA and STRR series.

Both series will be reintroduced when patterns in the underlying behaviour of passenger travel movements stabilise. Original estimates can be produced and will continue to be published as usual. For more details, please see paragraphs 20-35 of the Explanatory Notes in the Methodology and the ABS Feature Articles: Methods changes during the COVID-19 period (cat. no. 1359.0 for Jun 2020); When It's not "Business-as-usual": Implications for ABS Time Series (cat. no. 1350.0 for Aug 2009).

COVID-19 from Feb 2020

In response to the need for additional data and analysis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ABS will continue to release a series of feature articles containing additional state and territory level analysis of overseas visitor arrivals over the coming months, as well as national and state and territory information on arrivals of overseas students. See the left hand navigation pane to access information on a specific state/territory or article.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) commenced daily situation reports of the COVID-19 outbreak on 21 January 2020 and identified it as an international health emergency on 30 January. This was less than a month after suspected cases were reported in Wuhan, China. The Australian Government placed travel restrictions on those travelling to Australia initially from mainland China commencing 1 February. Other restrictions from other countries soon followed as the crisis worsened around the globe. From 20 March 2020, all overseas travel was banned, with few exceptions. For more information, see the Prime Minister's media release on border restrictions or the Smartraveller page from the Australian government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

Data notes

This release contains overseas movement data which should not be interpreted as 'persons'. See Explanatory Note 7 in the Methodology for more detail.

The statistics in this release have been rounded. See Explanatory Notes 36-38 in the Methodology for more detail.

Inquiries

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to the ABS.

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I-notes

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 3401.0

ABS.Stat datasets

Help for ABS.Stat datasets

Short-term movement, visitors arriving and residents returning - intended length of stay and main reason for journey: original 
Short-term movement, visitors arriving and residents returning - selected countries of residence/destinations: original

Methodology

Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia methodology, August 2020