Overseas Travel Statistics, Provisional methodology

This release contains provisional statistics on the international travel movements of persons arriving in, and departing from, Australia.

This is a temporary publication in response to COVID-19 and the heightened interest in traveller data. It is released one month earlier than the regular monthly Overseas Arrivals and Departures (OAD) publication. The data does not incorporate arrival card information and the use of other administrative data. The data is provisional and has not had the full quality assurances applied during the standard processes normally undertaken for OAD.

It can be expected movements of persons arriving in, and departing, from Australia, will fluctuate from month to month as travel restrictions are lifted or increased in response to COVID-19.

These statistics record the number of international border crossings rather than the number of travellers. Individuals who travel multiple times in a year are counted each time they cross Australia's borders. This publication is not an appropriate source of migration statistics. For further information refer to:

• Migration, Australia
• Australian Demographic Statistics 
• Information Paper: Improvements to the Estimation of Net Overseas Migration, Mar 2018.
   

A number of characteristics collected about travellers are available in this release. For a complete list of variables available see "Additional statistics available" below. 

Administrative information on persons arriving in, or departing from, Australia is collected via various processing systems, passport documents and visa information. Aside from persons travelling as Australian or New Zealand citizens, persons travelling to Australia are required to provide information in visa applications. These administrative data are collected by the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs (Home Affairs) under the authority of the Migration Regulations 1994 made under the Migration Act 1958.

ABS statistics on provisional overseas travel are compiled using information from Home Affairs sources. All overseas movement records are stored on Home Affairs' Travel and Immigration Processing System (TRIPS). The statistics are counts of all arrivals and all departures. Each month an early extract of all initial movement records is supplied to the ABS.

Data from the Travel and Immigration Processing System (TRIPS) is the main underlying data source for both the regular monthly OAD release and this new provisional publication. The data for this provisional release is used in its raw form, ABS make no alterations, no imputations, no logical edits, and no adjustments are made for missing data items. Provisional overseas travel statistics are not able to be broken down by short-term movements and long-term movements, as it is in the regular monthly Overseas Arrivals and Departures (OAD) publication. Unlike OAD, only a limited number of variables are available - see "Additional statistics available" below. This is because OAD draws on additional administrative data including information from passenger cards that is subject to lengthier processing.

However, because they are based on the same main data source, top level data in Overseas Arrivals and Departures and this publication, Overseas Travel Statistics - Provisional (OTS-P) are closely aligned. The comparison is shown in Figure 1 (All Arrivals) and Figure 2 (All Departures).

Provisional overseas travel statistics relate to all initial recorded movements of travellers who cross Australia's international border. The statistics record the number of movements of travellers rather than the number of travellers (i.e. multiple movements of an individual traveller during a given reference period are each counted separately). It includes the movements of all travellers regardless of their nationality, citizenship or legal status.

The statistics exclude the movements of operational air and ships' crew, of transit passengers who pass through Australia but are not cleared for entry (including some defence force personnel), and of passengers on pleasure cruises commencing and finishing in Australia. These statistics also exclude undocumented arrivals or departures.

From 1 July 2016, Norfolk island was integrated into Australia for administrative purposes. Travel between Australia and Norfolk Island is no longer considered an international movement and is therefore not included in the Provisional Overseas Travel statistics.

The classification of countries in this release is the Standard Australian Classification of Countries, 2016. For more detailed information, refer to the ABS release Standard Australian Classification of Countries, 2016. The entire historical series uses this version of the classification.

State and territory of clearance is based on the international airport or sea port of clearance whereby an international traveller is cleared by Australia's Border Force. Users should take care not to confuse this with state and territory of residence/stay used in Overseas Arrivals and Departures. For more information see the Glossary.

The Census and Statistics Act, 1905 provides the authority for the ABS to collect statistical information, and requires that statistical output shall not be published or disseminated in a manner that is likely to enable the identification of a particular person or organisation.

Some techniques used to guard against identification or disclosure of confidential information in statistical tables are suppression of sensitive cells, random adjustments to cells with very small values and rounding. In these cases data may not sum to totals due to the confidentialisation of individual cells.

The statistics in this release have been rounded to the nearest 10. Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of component items and totals. Analysis featured in this release is based on un-rounded data. Calculations made on rounded data may differ to those published.

For inquiries about these and related statistics, contact the Customer Assistance Service via the ABS website Contact Us page.  

The following variables for provisional overseas travel statistics are available on request:

• Country of citizenship (nationality)
• Direction, arrival or departure
• Reference month (available back to September 2016)
• Reference year (available back to 2017)
• State or territory of clearance
• Visa group
• Visa subclass
   

Monthly Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia.

Related statistics are also published by:

• Department of Home Affairs, available on the department's website https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au.
• Tourism Research Australia, available on the department's website http://www.tra.gov.au/.
• Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities, available on the department's website https://bitre.gov.au/statistics/index.aspx.
   

As well as the statistics included in this and related releases, additional information is available on the ABS website. Users can access the full range of electronic ABS data free of charge on the ABS website.

This release draws on information provided by the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs. The ABS also uses information provided freely by individuals, businesses, governments and other organisations. Their continued cooperation is very much appreciated; without it, the wide range of statistics published by the ABS would not be available. Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905.