INTERNATIONAL VISITOR ARRIVALS

There were 5.5 million short-term international visitor arrivals in 2006, equal to the number of such arrivals in 2005 (graph 23.6).

External events such as terrorism and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome scare coincided with the decrease in arrivals between 2001 and 2003.

The major source countries for short-term international visitor arrivals to Australia during 2006 were New Zealand (1,075,800 visitor arrivals), followed by the United Kingdom (734,200), Japan (651,000) and the United States of America (456,100) (table 23.7).

Between 2005 and 2006 the number of short-term international visitor arrivals from Japan fell by 34,300, while visitor arrivals from New Zealand fell by 23,100. Visitor arrivals from the United Kingdom rose by 25,400, from China by 23,500 and from the United States of America by 9,800.

23.7 SHORT-TERM INTERNATIONAL VISITOR ARRIVALS, By major source countries
	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
	’000	’000	’000	'000	'000
New Zealand	790.2	839.1	1 032.7	1 098.9	1 075.8
United Kingdom	642.7	673.0	676.2	708.8	734.2
Japan	715.4	627.8	710.4	685.3	651.0
United States of America	434.4	422.2	433.3	446.3	456.1
China (excl. SARs and Taiwan Prov.)	190.1	176.1	251.3	285.0	308.5
Korea	189.7	207.2	211.9	250.6	260.8
Singapore	286.9	253.4	251.2	266.1	253.4
Hong Kong (SAR of China)	151.0	129.1	137.2	159.5	154.8
Malaysia	159.0	155.6	166.8	166.0	150.3
Germany	134.7	137.8	140.6	146.5	148.2
Source: Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia (3401.0).

In 2006 people whose main purpose for their trip was a holiday accounted for the highest share (52%) and employment accounted for the lowest share (2.8%) of short-term international visitor arrivals to Australia (graph 23.8).

December recorded the highest number of visitor arrivals (11.6% of total arrivals) in 2006, while May recorded the lowest (6.2%) (graph 23.9).

International visitor nights refers to the number of nights all international visitors aged 15 years and over spent in Australia. In 2006, international visitors in Australia spent the most nights in New South Wales (57.3 million or 37%), followed by Queensland (34.5 million or 22%) and Victoria (31.2 million or 20%) (graph 23.10).

Of all international visitors in 2006, nights spent in Australia by those who travelled for holiday purposes accounted for 38% of short-term international visitor nights; 29% were for educational purposes; 17% of nights were to visit friends and relatives; and 7% were for business purposes (graph 23.11).

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