Visitation to Japan up 25%

JAPAN was the fastest-growing outbound destination for Australian travellers over the last 12 months, with Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures released yesterday indicating year-on-year increases of 24.8% to the country.

The Nov 2019 ABS results showed that Indonesia also grew strongly, up 12.4% year-on-year, while travel by Australians to India jumped by 7.3%.

That was in contrast to significant annual decreases for travel to Thailand, down 6.6%, as well as the USA which declined 5.9% over the last 12 months.

The statistics, which record Australian residents returning home, showed an overall 3.3% increase between Nov 2018 and Nov 2019.

New Zealand was the top-visited destination for Nov 2019, with 119,000 Australian visitors, fractionally ahead of Indonesia at 117,300 and the United States in third spot with 79,900 Aussie travellers.

China and Japan were in joint fourth position with 42,600, followed by Thailand with 41,100; Singapore with 39,300; and then India with 37,300 Australian visitors.

That pushed the UK into eighth position with just 36,300 visitors in terms of the original forecasts.

Overall arrivals by foreign visitors to Australia were up 2.5% year-on-year, with New Zealand sending 120,400 across the ditch, followed by China in second spot with 101,400 arrivals.

Among the top-10 source countries for inbound, the highest annual increases were recorded for India, up 16.9%; Singapore, up 6.6%; and Japan, up 3.3%.

Tasmania, Queensland and Western Australia recorded the strongest growth in international visitation, with increases of 12.9%, 8.1% and 6.4% respectively.