Travel deep freeze

THE ongoing border ban and strict caps on inbound flight capacity saw inbound and outbound passenger numbers continue at historically low levels during Jul, according to the latest release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Based on international border crossings, total arrivals numbered 74,860, a monthly decrease of 27,620 trips, while departures amounted to 87,020, down 11,320 on the prior month.

The inbound traffic included 41,800 short-term Australian resident returns and 18,750 international visitors, while Jul saw 44,470 Australian residents depart the country on a shortterm basis, and a further 5,700 leave for a planned period of longer than 12 months.

The leading source countries for overseas visitors to Australia in Jul were New Zealand (13,190 trips), the US (770 trips) and the United Kingdom (740 trips).