Travel abroad loses lustre

THE Aussie obsession with overseas travel may be starting to wear off, with new statistics showing fewer residents travelled abroad in April.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ data revealed 762,000 short- term departures were recorded in the month, compared with 807,500 in April 2014.

Despite the decrease, destinations such as New Zealand, Japan and Papua New Guinea still received more Australian visitors than a year ago.

However, visitors to the US, Indonesia, China and Thailand declined compared with the same month last year.

The data comes on the back of yesterday’s National Visitor Survey by Tourism Research Australia that revealed more Australians were holidaying at home.

The weaker currency was cited as contributing to the rise in domestic travel and a TRA spokesman predicted overseas holidays would fall in response.

Heading in the other direction, international visitors continued to flock to Australia in rising numbers, swarming through Customs at a rate of more than 18,000 a day. Kiwis, Chinese and Americans led the stampede.