MEDIA RELEASE
11 March 2014	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	30/2014

January saw record numbers of overseas visitors to Australia, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The increase in short-term visitors to Australia over the past year has continued, up 8.7 per cent from last year, and there were nearly 560,000 short-term visitor arrivals to Australia's shores in January 2014, making it the highest January on record.

"The largest growth in short-term visitor arrivals over the past year was from Asia, " said Denise Carlton from the ABS, "Arrivals from Malaysia were up by 40 per cent, and from Hong Kong and Singapore by 26 per cent each."

In 2013, the ABS completed a rebuild of the overseas arrivals and departures system and today's results are the first from this new methodology.

All overseas arrivals and departures data has been revised back to July 2004 based on the improved methodology.

Further information, including details of the improved methodology and revised time series can be found in Overseas Arrivals and Departures, January 2014 (cat. no. 3401.0) available for free from the ABS web site (www.abs.gov.au).

Media Notes:

• Short-term visitor arrivals are overseas visitors who intend to stay in Australia for less than 12 months.
• Figures in this media release are based on trend series.
• Please ensure when reporting on ABS data that you attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.