DATA ITEM | SOURCE | QUESTION WORDING ON PASSENGER CARDS | USES |
Citizenship (Nationality) | TRIPS for those travelling on a visa.
Passenger cards for other travellers. | Q. Nationality/Citizenship as shown in passport | Used as basis for sample stratification for short-term movements.
Formulating and monitoring of numerous government policies and programs relating to migrants. |
Country of Birth | TRIPS for those travelling on a visa. | Q. Country of Birth | The one stable geographic reference through a person's life, it enables an understanding of types of people who are moving that citizenship does not give.
Allows estimation of Australian population by country of birth for intercensal years.
Formulating and monitoring of numerous government policies and programs relating to migrants. |
Age (Date of birth) | TRIPS for those travelling on a visa.
Passenger cards for other travellers Eg New Zealand citizens and Australian passport holders. | Q. Date of birth (day, month, year)
| Used to calculate age in completed years.
Age and sex variables widely used with other traveller characteristics by statistical, immigration and tourism authorities.
Age and sex variables used for permanent and long-term movements in production of accurate population estimates.
Age and sex variables used indirectly in balance of payments calculations. |
Sex | TRIPS for those travelling on a visa. | Q. Sex (Male/female) |
Marital status | TRIPS for those travelling on a visa (not available for Australian or New Zealand citizens) | | Registered marital status is a basic demographic characteristic.
Data is used by ABS in production of an estimated resident population by marital status series.
Useful in regard to marital dissolution as a precipitator of migration.
Used in research of characteristics of tourists. |
Category of travel | Passenger cards | Incoming Passenger Card:
Q. Please x and answer A or B or C:
A Migrating permanently to Australia
B Visitor or temporary entrant
C Resident returning to Australia
Do you intend to live in Australia for the next 12 months?
Outgoing Passenger Card
Q. Please x and answer D or E or F:
D Visitor or temporary entrant departing
E Australian resident departing temporarily
F Australian resident departing permanently
See also Intended length of stay and Actual length of stay below | This is the fundamental classification to meaningfully interpret the data and allow the differentiation between short-term, long-term visitor or resident movements and permanent movements for arrivals and departures.
Federal, State and Local Government require information by type of movement for decision making, such as tourism, infrastructure etc.
Government and private tourism authorities are interested in short-term movements for policy, market research, promotional campaigns etc.
Accurate data required on those 'migrating' to Australia who do not need a visa eg New Zealand citizens
Impacts on the derivation of travel and unrequited transfer estimates used in balance of payments.
Data required to align with balance of payments concepts of residents and non-residents. |
Intended length of stay | Passenger cards | Incoming Passenger Card:
Q. Your intended length of stay in Australia - years, months OR days
(visitor or temporary migrant)
Outgoing Passenger Card:
Q. Intended length of stay overseas years, months OR days
(residents departing temporarily) | Categorises movements into short and long-term. Movements of more than one year and a % of movements of one year exactly are treated as long-term and are included in population estimates.
Data required to align with balance of payments concepts of residents and non-residents.
Used to assess 'category jumpers' for population estimates.
Government authorities and other parties are interested in Intended length of stay for education and employment purposes.
Government and private tourism authorities are interested in Intended length of stay of visitors. |
Actual length of stay | TRIPS | | Used for number of travellers and migrants for input into balance of payments.
Data required to align with balance of payments concepts of residents and non-residents.
Helps to classify type of movement and is important for the accurate compilation of population estimates.
Government authorities and other parties are interested in Intended length of stay for education and employment purposes.
Required to assess the extent of category jumping.
Users requiring data on tourism use this information. |
Main reason for journey | Passenger cards | Q. Your main reason for coming to Australia/ Main reason for overseas travel (x one only)
Convention/conference
Business
Visiting friends or relatives
Employment
Education
Exhibition
Holiday
Other | Information is used by Government tourism authorities for stratifying survey samples (International Visitors Survey conducted by the Bureau of Tourism Research).
For tourism purposes this is the single most important item on the passenger card.
Separate identification of students (using Education response) is very important for balance of payment calculations as separate expenditure estimates of people travelling to and from Australia for educational purposes are published.
Government authorities and other parties are interested in reason for journey for education and employment purposes. |
Country | Passenger cards. For a visitor or temporary entrant departing, the country of residence is derived from the incoming passenger card. | Incoming Passenger Card:
Q. Country where you spent most time abroad
(resident returning to Australia)
Q. Your country of residence
(visitors)
Outgoing Passenger Card:
Q. Country where you will spend most time abroad
(Australian residents departing temporarily)
Q. What is your country of future residence
(Australian residents departing permanently) | Used to cross-classify with types of movement.
Country of residence of visitors is critical for tourism research.
Country where you will spend most time abroad is used for tourism research.
Country of future residence data are used indirectly in balance of payments calculations.
Permanent and long-term movements are useful in monitoring population flows to and from Australia. |
Occupation | Passenger cards (not available for short-term movements) | Q.What is your usual occupation? | Used to monitor the supply and demand for labour and supplies input to the development of various policies and programs by Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business (DEWRSB) and DIMA. |
State or Territory of intended address
| Incoming passenger card
| Q. Intended address in Australia. | Regional information important for tourism analysis and governments.
State level details for permanent and long-term travellers required for population estimates purposes.
Following census years residents returning to Australia who were absent at the time of the census are coded down to the Statistical Local Area level for population estimate purposes.
Full address is required for details of overseas expenditure for the purposes of Balance of Payments calculations, and for surveys of returning travellers.
Balance of Payments require the full address to conduct the Survey of Returned Australian Travellers.
State or Territory of intended address is a high priority for permanent and long-term movements. |
State in which most time spent/State or Territory lived | Outgoing passenger card | Q. City or State where you spent most time (visitors)
Q. In which State do you live (Australian residents departing temporarily)
Q. In which State did you live (Australian residents departing permanently) | Important for government and tourist authorities.
Area details for permanent and long-term travellers are used for population estimates at the State and Territory level. |
Arrival/departure date | Passenger cards batch headers
| Date of movement recorded on TRIPS database.
Date recorded on passenger cards. | This is a fundamental classification. Date of movement is used to classify movements by month, quarter and year.
Used with date of birth to calculate age at movement.
This information is widely used by statistical, immigration and tourism authorities. |
Flight Number/Name of Ship | Passenger cards batch headers | Q. Flight number or name of ship. | Used for administrative purposes monitoring airline agreements.
Useful in enabling quality checks to be undertaken on the processing of the cards. |
Country of embarkation/
disembarkation | Passenger cards | Incoming Passenger card:
Q. In which country did you board this flight or ship?
Outgoing Passenger card:
Q. Country where you will get off this flight | Of use to tourism authorities.
|
Airport/Port of arrival/departure | Passenger cards batch headers | | Provides detail on traffic for the benefit of airports, hotels, tourist authorities. |