Arrivals, departures slow

THE growth rate for short term visitor arrivals and resident departures into and out of Australia slowed slightly last month, but metrics for both inbound and outbound travel are still up year-on-year according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released this morning.

The Mar trend estimate figures showed a 0.1% month-on-month increase in short term arrivals, while departures dipped 0.3%.

Compared to the same period a year ago, arrivals are up 6.5% while departures rose 1%.

During Mar China was the top source market for Australia with 110,400 visitors, just topping NZ with 108,700 arrivals.

The UK was in third place for visitors to Australia with 79,000 arrivals, just ahead of the US with 76,700 and then Japan at 50,400.

The fastest growing inbound market in the top ten was India, up 11.6% to 24,100, while the only top ten source market to drop was Singapore, down 2.2%.

For Australians heading overseas New Zealand was the top destination with 116,700 departures, way ahead of Indonesia at 81, 700 and then the USA at 72,800.

Indonesia was down 10.6% year-on-year, most likely due to the timing of Easter this year.

MEANWHILE the ABS also noted quality issues in relation to the figures, due to the increasing use of Departure SmartGates and passengers not placing outgoing passenger cards into the drop boxes at immigration.

For Mar 2017 the ABS added almost a quarter of a million records to account for missing outgoing passenger cards, as well as 372 inbound records to account for a higher level of missing incoming passenger cards.