DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Dec '17	Nov '17 to Dec '17	Dec '16 to Dec '17
		'000	% change	% change
Short-term visitor arrivals
	Trend	751.4	-0.1	5.8
	Seasonally adjusted	742.7	-1.7	..
	Original	1 010.6	..	..
Short-term resident returns
	Trend	885.6	0.1	3.2
	Seasonally adjusted	876.7	-1.6	..
	Original	677.5	..	..
. . not applicable

Visitor arrivals, Short-term

Resident returns, Short-term

DECEMBER KEY POINTS

SHORT-TERM VISITOR ARRIVALS TO AUSTRALIA

• Trend estimates: Short-term visitor arrivals during December 2017 (751,400 movements) decreased 0.1% compared with November 2017 (752,000 movements). This followed monthly increases of 0.1% in both October 2017 and November 2017. The current trend estimate for arrivals is 5.8% higher than in December 2016.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: During December 2017, short-term visitor arrivals (742,700 movements) decreased 1.7% compared with November 2017 (755,300 movements). This followed a monthly increase of 1.7% in October 2017 and a monthly decrease of 0.1% in November 2017.
• Original estimates: There were 1,010,600 short-term visitor arrivals to Australia in December 2017.

SHORT-TERM RESIDENT RETURNS TO AUSTRALIA

• Trend estimates: Short-term resident returns during December 2017 (885,600 movements) increased 0.1% compared with November 2017 (884,700 movements). This followed monthly increases of 0.1% in both October 2017 and November 2017. The current trend estimate for returns is 3.2% higher than in December 2016.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: During December 2017, short-term resident returns (876,700 movements) decreased 1.6% compared with November 2017 (891,300 movements). This followed a monthly decrease of 0.5% in October 2017 and a monthly increase of 0.5% in November 2017.
• Original estimates: There were 677,500 short-term resident returns to Australia in December 2017.

NOTES


FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
January 2018	15 March 2018
February 2018	18 April 2018
March 2018	15 May 2018
April 2018	18 June 2018
May 2018	16 July 2018
June 2018	20 August 2018

DATA NOTES

This release contains overseas movement data which should not be interpreted as 'persons'. See paragraph 7 of the Explanatory Notes for more detail.

The statistics in this release have been rounded. See paragraph 33 of the Explanatory Notes for more detail.


REVISIONS IN THIS ISSUE

The ABS identified a data quality issue with estimates for state or territory of stay/residence since July 2017, in particular with estimates for the Northern Territory being understated and a corresponding overstatement for New South Wales. Revised OAD statistics for July to November 2017 are included in this issue.

Further investigations by the ABS and the Department of Home Affairs have identified additional quality issues with the capture and coding of state or territory of stay/residence from incoming passenger cards from July 2017 onwards. Data from the cards is currently being re-processed to correct these issues and will be re-supplied to the ABS. Once this is complete, ABS will revise OAD statistics from July 2017 onwards.

For further information, see the Data Quality Issues (Appendix) on the left hand side under the Explanatory Notes tab.


INQUIRIES

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