JANUARY KEY FIGURES

		Jan '10	Dec '09 to Jan '10	Jan '09 to Jan '10
		'000	% change	% change
Short-term visitor arrivals
	Trend	485.4	0.3	4.8
	Seasonally adjusted	480.9	-1.0	. .
	Original	456.0	. .	. .
Short-term resident departures
	Trend	np	np	np
	Seasonally adjusted	558.6	2.0	. .
	Original	494.4	. .	. .
. . not applicable
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated

Visitor arrivals, Short-term

Resident departures, Short-term

JANUARY KEY POINTS


SHORT-TERM VISITOR ARRIVALS

• Trend estimates: Short-term visitor arrivals to Australia during January 2010 (485,400 movements) increased 0.3% compared with December 2009 (483,800 movements). This followed monthly increases of 1.0% for November 2009 and 0.7% for December 2009.
• Currently, trend estimates for arrivals are 4.8% higher than in January 2009.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: During January 2010, arrivals (480,900 movements) recorded a decrease of 1.0% compared with December 2009 (485,800 movements). This followed a monthly decrease of 1.7% for November 2009 and a monthly increase of 2.5% for December 2009.
• Original estimates: There were 456,000 arrivals to Australia in January 2010.

SHORT-TERM RESIDENT DEPARTURES

• Trend estimates: The trend estimates series has been suspended for April 2009 and onwards. For further information please see the SUSPENSION OF SHORT-TERM RESIDENT DEPARTURES TREND ESTIMATES section on the NOTES page of this issue.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: During January 2010, departures (558,600 movements) increased by 2.0% compared with December 2009 (547,900 movements). This followed monthly decreases of 1.0% for November 2009 and 3.3% for December 2009.
• Original estimates: There were 494,400 departures from Australia during January 2010.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
February 2010	7 April 2010
March 2010	10 May 2010
April 2010	4 June 2010
May 2010	6 July 2010
June 2010	4 August 2010
July 2010	3 September 2010

DATA NOTES

This publication contains overseas movement data which should not be interpreted as 'persons'. See paragraph 5 of the Explanatory Notes for more detail.

The statistics in this publication have been rounded to the nearest 100 for short-term movements and to the nearest 10 for permanent and long-term movements. As a result, sums of the components may not add exactly to totals. Analysis featured in this publication is based on unrounded data. Calculations made on rounded data may differ to those published.


SUSPENSION OF SHORT-TERM RESIDENT DEPARTURES TREND ESTIMATES

The trend estimates have been suspended from April 2009 for all Short-term Resident Departures (STRD) series. The trend estimates will be reintroduced when more stability emerges in the underlying behaviour of passenger movements.

The trend series attempts to measure the underlying behaviour in passenger movements. In the short term, this measurement may be significantly affected by unusual influences in the original and seasonally adjusted data, like those observed between April 2009 and January 2010 for STRDs. If the trend estimates in the publication were to be calculated without fully accounting for these unusual influences, they would be likely to provide a misleading view of the underlying trend in activity. Further, if passenger movements in subsequent months are influenced by these unusual influences, it may be some time before the underlying behaviour of the series can be reliably estimated. For more details on trend estimates, please see paragraph 23 of the Explanatory Notes.

Appropriate seasonally adjusted estimates can be produced and will continue to be published as usual.


SHORT-TERM VISITOR ARRIVALS TREND ESTIMATES

WARNING: Caution should be used when interpreting recent Short-term Visitor Arrivals trend estimates as they may be affected by unusual economic or other factors.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

With the release of the January 2010 issue of Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia (cat. no. 3401.0), improvements were made to the seasonal adjustment of Short-term Resident Departures to Poland and to Other Southern and Central Asia for the period between 1976 and 1984. Therefore, small changes will be seen in the Total Short-term Resident Departures Seasonally Adjusted and Trend estimates for that period.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Anne Ward on Canberra (02) 6252 6871.