Feb ABS figures plummet

Feb ABS figures plummet

THE impact of the Jan bushfires and COVID-19 on Australia’s tourism sector began to be felt in Feb this year, with figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) yesterday indicating a whopping 26% slump in short term visitor arrivals during the month.

The regularly released Overseas Arrivals and Departures statistics showed that in Feb there were 685,400 visitors arriving here – but at the same time Aussies continued to enthusiastically head abroad, with a 5.3% year-on-year increase in departures.

The impact on inbound travel reflected the closures of Australia’s borders to arrivals from China, with ABS Director of Migration Statistics, Jenny Dobak, noting that although China was previously the largest source of visitors for the month, it was down almost 90% vs Feb 2019.

Other Asian source markets were also impacted, with arrivals from Hong Kong slumping 28% and Singapore down 25%.

Interestingly, visitation from Germany also declined significantly, down 16% during the month.

Feb arrivals slowed almost across the board, with the top source market being New Zealand, down 4.7%, and a 7% decline in arrivals from the USA.

The only top ten market to show an increase during the month was India, up 15.6% year-on-year.

In terms of resident returns, the top destination was New Zealand with 125,100 trips, up 8.2%.

Indonesia, in second spot, was up 17.3% to 92,500 visitors, while travel to Vietnam also surged 30.9% year-on-year to 34,900.

Of the top ten outbound countries for Aussie travel, declines were recorded for China, down 13.6%, and Thailand, down 9.9% during the month.

The ABS has suspended the inclusion of “trend estimates” in the figures due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international travel.

Simon Westaway from the Australian Tourism Industry Council said the Feb figures were the start of a worsening picture the industry has already directly faced as a result of the public health response to COVID-19.

MEANWHILE also in response to the coronavirus situation, the ABS is now releasing more detailed feature articles with additional state and territory level analysis of overseas visitor arrivals.

The figures also break out visitation by international students which has been heavily impacted by the 01 Feb imposition of Chinese arrival bans by the Australian Government.

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Source: traveldaily