Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia

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Statistics on international travel, including tourism trips, arriving in and departing from Australia. Focusing on short-term trips (less than 1 year)

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Reference period
December 2020
Released
17/02/2021
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Key statistics

December 2020 original estimates for short-term trips (less than 1 year):

  • Overseas visitor arrivals to Australia increased 16.5% since the previous month to 8,820 trips

  • Australian resident returns from overseas increased 10.0% since the previous month to 14,300 trips.

1.1 Monthly change - Original estimates
Nov 2020 (no.)Dec 2020 (no.)Nov 2020 to Dec 2020 (% change)
Visitor arrivals - short-term trips7,5708,82016.5
Resident returns - short-term trips13,00014,30010.0

These statistics report on the number of international border crossings rather than the number of people. Most data in this release are rounded to the nearest 10. As a result, sums of components may not add exactly to totals.

Migration Statistics

This release presents statistics on overseas arrivals and departures, which is not the same as migration statistics.

If you are looking for migration statistics, please refer to:

Changes due to COVID-19

The pandemic has continued to disrupt international travel. Trend estimates were suspended from February 2020 and seasonally adjusted estimates suspended from April 2020 due to the outbreak. Original estimates are still available and are used in the analysis below. For more information, see the Recent changes section.

Visitor arrivals

Compares international visitor arrivals each month by source country and change at the state and territory level. Analysis in this section is undertaken on short-term trips (less than 1 year).

Key findings

For visitor arrivals to Australia:

  • A total of 8,820 short-term trips were recorded.

  • This was a decrease of 99.2% when compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

  • New Zealand was the largest source country, accounting for 29% of all visitor arrivals.

Source countries

The three leading source countries where visitors came from were:

  • New Zealand (2,520 trips)
  • The USA (1,000)
  • The UK (880).

Details

                                                                          

State or territory of stay

All travellers are asked their intended address in Australia upon arrival. There were decreases of 98% and over across all states and territories when compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

Details

Resident returns

Compares international resident returns each month by destination country and change at the state and territory level. Analysis in this section is undertaken on short-term trips (less than 1 year).

Key findings

For residents returning from overseas:

  • A total of 14,300 short-term trips were recorded.

  • This was a decrease of 98.1% when compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

  • New Zealand was the most popular destination country, accounting for 15% of all resident returns.

Destination countries

The three leading destination countries residents returned from were:

  • New Zealand (2,190 trips)
  • The UK (1,240)
  • The USA (1,180).

Details

State or territory of residence

All travellers are asked their intended address in Australia upon arrival. There were decreases of 97% and over across all states and territories when compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

Details

Arrivals - state and territory

This section compares international visitor arrivals each month by source country for each state and territory. The additional information is being provided during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis in this section is undertaken on short-term trips (less than 1 year) unless otherwise stated.

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

South Australia

Western Australia

Tasmania

Northern Territory

Australian Capital Territory

Arrivals - international students

This analysis compares international student arrivals each month by visa type for each state and territory and nationally. It includes both those whose intended duration is short-term (less than 1 year) or long-term (1 year or more). The additional information is being provided during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Australia

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

South Australia

Western Australia

Tasmania

Northern Territory

Australian Capital Territory

Visitor arrivals - Calendar year - 2020

Compares annual international travel arrivals over time by source country, by state and territory, by age and sex, by main reason for journey and by median duration of trip. All analysis in this section is done on short-term trips (less than 1 year).

Effects of COVID-19 outbreak

The World Health Organisation (WHO) commenced daily situation reports of the COVID-19 outbreak on 21 January 2020 and identified it as an international health emergency on 30 January. This was less than a month after suspected cases were reported in Wuhan, China. Initially the Australian Government placed travel restrictions on those travelling to Australia from mainland China commencing 1 February 2020. Restrictions on other countries soon followed. From 20 March 2020, all overseas travel was banned, with few exceptions. The pandemic has continued to disrupt international travel. For more information, see the Prime Minister's media release on border restrictions or the Smartraveller page from the Australian government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

Key findings

Note: 97% of visitor arrivals in 2020 occurred prior to travel restrictions implemented by the Australian Government on 20 March 2020.

Visitors arriving in Australia in 2020.

  • There were 1.8 million visitor arrivals, down 80.7% on the previous year and the lowest since 1987
  • New Zealand was the largest source country, accounting for 242,500 visitors nationally
  • There were more visits by women than men. Ten years earlier, the opposite was true
  • The main reason for travel was 'holiday' (43.2%)
  • Nationally, the median duration of stay in Australia was 14 days.

Annual visitor arrivals

Source countries

State or territory of stay

Age and sex

Main reason for journey

Duration of stay

Resident returns - Calendar year - 2020

Compares annual international travel for resident returns over time by destination country, by state and territory, by age and sex, by main reason for journey and by median duration of trip. All analysis in this section is done on short-term trips (less than 1 year).

Effects of COVID-19 outbreak

The World Health Organisation (WHO) commenced daily situation reports of the COVID-19 outbreak on 21 January 2020 and identified it as an international health emergency on 30 January. This was less than a month after suspected cases were reported in Wuhan, China. Initially the Australian Government placed travel restrictions on those travelling to Australia from mainland China commencing 1 February 2020. Restrictions on other countries soon followed. From 20 March 2020, all overseas travel was banned, with few exceptions. The pandemic has continued to disrupt international travel. For more information, see the Prime Minister's media release on border restrictions or the Smartraveller page from the Australian government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

Key findings

Note: 92% of resident returns in 2020 occurred prior to travel restrictions implemented by the Australian Government on 20 March 2020.

Australian residents returning to Australia in 2020.

  • There were 2.8 million resident returns from overseas, down 75.0% on the previous year and the lowest since 1996 
  • New Zealand continued to be the leading destination country for Australians travelling overseas, accounting for 438,700 visitors nationally
  • The main reason for travel was 'holiday' (53.3%)
  • Nationally, the median duration away was 17 days.

Annual resident returns

Destination countries

State or territory of residence

Age and sex

Main reason for journey

Duration of stay

Recent changes

Suspension of seasonally adjusted and trend estimates from Apr and Feb 2020

Seasonally adjusted estimates have been suspended from April 2020 for all Short-term Visitor Arrival (STVA) and Short-term Resident Return (STRR) series due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international travel.

Trend estimates have been suspended from February 2020 for all STVA and STRR series.

Both series will be reintroduced when patterns in the underlying behaviour of passenger travel movements stabilise. Original estimates can be produced and will continue to be published as usual. For more details, please see the Seasonally adjusted and trend estimates section in the Methodology and the ABS Feature Articles: Methods changes during the COVID-19 period (cat. no. 1359.0 for Jun 2020); When It's not "Business-as-usual": Implications for ABS Time Series (cat. no. 1350.0 for Aug 2009).

COVID-19 from Feb 2020

In response to the need for additional data and analysis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ABS will continue to release a series of feature articles containing additional state and territory level analysis of overseas visitor arrivals over the coming months, as well as national and state and territory information on arrivals of overseas students. See the left hand navigation pane to access information on a specific state/territory or article.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) commenced daily situation reports of the COVID-19 outbreak on 21 January 2020 and identified it as an international health emergency on 30 January. This was less than a month after suspected cases were reported in Wuhan, China. The Australian Government placed travel restrictions on those travelling to Australia initially from mainland China commencing 1 February 2020. Restrictions on other countries soon followed. From 20 March 2020, all overseas travel was banned, with few exceptions. For more information, see the Prime Minister's media release on border restrictions or the Smartraveller page from the Australian government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

Data notes

This release contains overseas movement data which should not be interpreted as 'persons'. See the Scope section, paragraph 1 in the Methodology for more detail.

The statistics in this release have been rounded. See the Confidentiality section in the Methodology for more detail.

Inquiries

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I-notes

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 3401.0

ABS.Stat datasets

Help for ABS.Stat Datasets

Short-term Movement, Visitors Arriving and Residents Returning - Intended Length of Stay and Main Reason for Journey: Original

Short-term Movement, Visitors Arriving and Residents Returning - Selected Countries of Residence/Destinations: Original

Methodology

Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia methodology, December 2020

Media releases