9502.0.55.001 - Framework for Australian Tourism Statistics, 2003  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 26/09/2003   
   Page tools: Print Print Page  

54. This section provides the definitions of the international visitor components of consumer listed above.

55. Broadly, the definition of international visitor includes persons arriving in the country for:

  • pleasure
  • recreation
  • visiting friends/relatives
  • holiday
  • sport
  • business
  • conventions
  • health
  • education/training
  • religious purposes.

(For details of purpose of visit see Chapter 3, Typical Measures for Consumer.)

56. The definition does not include persons arriving in Australia for employment purposes. A significant number of travellers however, visit for a combination of short-term employment and pleasure purposes. As data are required on such travellers, they may be recorded in the statistics (assuming they are staying less than 12 months), but should be identified separately as visiting for employment/leisure purposes. This will enable comparison with international statistics, which exclude such travellers from the definition of visitor.

57. The following categories of travellers should not be included in international visitor statistics:

(a) persons entering or leaving the country as migrants, including dependents accompanying or joining them

(b) persons living close to the Australia/Papua New Guinea border, who live in one country and work in another

(c) diplomats, consular officers and members of the armed forces, when travelling from their country of origin to the country of their assignment or vice-versa, including household servants and dependents accompanying or joining them

(d) persons travelling as refugees or nomads

(e) persons in transit who do not formally enter the country through passport control. An example is air transit passengers who remain for a short period in a designated area of the air terminal. This category would include passengers transferred directly between airports or other terminals. Other passengers transiting through Australia are classified as visitors.

58. Since travellers in categories (a) to (e) above, are not included in the statistics of international visitors when they arrive in Australia, for purposes of domestic tourism statistics they should be treated as Australian residents and thus as domestic visitors when they take a trip within Australia.

59. The essential criterion for determining whether a person arriving in a country is a national or overseas resident is country of residence, not nationality.

60. The definition of same-day visitor includes persons who arrive as cruise ship or yacht passengers and crew members on a cruise ship or warship who stay longer than one night but return to their ship each night.

61. For statistics at local area levels, an international visitor should be classified as an overnight visitor or a same-day visitor according to how long s/he stays in the local region, irrespective of how long s/he stays in the country. Thus an international visitor who stays in the country for more than one night but takes a day trip to a local region would be classed as an overnight visitor in the international arrival/departure statistics but as a same-day visitor in visitor statistics collected for the local region.



Previous PageNext Page