SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

In mid-2017, the ABS undertook a review of Overseas Arrivals and Departures statistics, methodology and processing systems due to the removal of the outgoing passenger card. See NOTES section for details.

		Sep '17	Aug '17 to Sep '17	Sep '16 to Sep '17
		'000	% change	% change
Short-term visitor arrivals
	Trend	752.5	0.4	6.7
	Seasonally adjusted	744.6	-2.2	..
	Original	663.5	..	..
Short-term resident returns
	Trend	884.7	0.2	5.5
	Seasonally adjusted	892.9	1.6	..
	Original	946.0	..	..
. . not applicable

Visitor arrivals, Short-term

Resident returns, Short-term

SEPTEMBER KEY POINTS

SHORT-TERM VISITOR ARRIVALS TO AUSTRALIA

• Trend estimates: Short-term visitor arrivals during September 2017 (752,500 movements) increased 0.4% compared with August 2017 (749,700 movements). This followed monthly increases of 0.6% in July 2017 and 0.5% in August 2017. The current trend estimate for arrivals is 6.7% higher than in September 2016.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: During September 2017, short-term visitor arrivals (744,600 movements) decreased 2.2% compared with August 2017 (761,500 movements). This followed monthly increases of 2.4% in July 2017 and 2.1% in August 2017.
• Original estimates: There were 663,500 short-term visitor arrivals to Australia in September 2017.

SHORT-TERM RESIDENT RETURNS TO AUSTRALIA

• Trend estimates: Short-term resident returns during September 2017 (884,700 movements) increased 0.2% compared with August 2017 (882,900 movements). This followed no change in both July 2017 and August 2017. The current trend estimate for returns is 5.5% higher than in September 2016.
• Seasonally adjusted estimates: During September 2017, short-term resident returns (892,900 movements) increased 1.6% compared with August 2017 (879,000 movements). This followed monthly increases of 0.2% in July 2017 and 0.5% in August 2017.
• Original estimates: There were 946,000 short-term resident returns to Australia in September 2017.

NOTES


FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
October 2017	14 December 2017
November 2017	19 January 2018
December 2017	19 February 2018
January 2018	15 March 2018
February 2018	18 April 2018
March 2018	15 May 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.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

In mid-2017, the ABS undertook a review of OAD statistics, methodology and processing systems due to the removal of the outgoing passenger card. The review has resulted in a break in series, necessitating a revised time series for OAD data from July 2007 to June 2017 based on the new methodology. Figures prior to June 2007 may not be strictly comparable to those which follow. For information on the changes, including OAD data that is no longer available, see NOTES section of this issue or Data Quality Issues (Appendix 2) in the left hand side navigation bar under the Explanatory Notes tab.

Prior to July 2017, the focus of this publication was on Short-term Visitor Arrivals and Short-term Resident Departures, with trend and seasonally adjusted data provided for both series. Since July 2017, the focus has shifted to Short-term Visitor Arrivals and Short-term Resident Returns. A full trend and seasonally adjusted series is now available for Short-term Resident Returns (i.e. a resident's second leg of journey).

In this issue, the ABS is releasing OAD statistics via ABS.Stat in addition to the usual release products. See the Downloads tab for the ABS.Stat data.


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