OUTBOUND travel from Australia continues on an upward trajectory, with May figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicating a 5.5% year-on-year trend estimate increase in “resident returns”.
The report released today showed 822,200 short-term travellers returning to Australia during the month, with Japan the strongest-growing destination, up a whopping 20.9% year-on-year.
There was also double-digit growth in travel to China, up 16.3%, Indonesia which rose 11% and India which increased 10.9%.
Travel declined 2.3% to New Zealand, and 3.2% to Thailand, while the only other top 10 destination to see a drop was Fiji, down 0.4% versus May 2017.
Inbound tourism is also growing, with short-term visitor arrivals currently 3.7% higher than 12 months ago.
The fastest growing markets for Australian visitation were India, up 20.9%, followed by Hong Kong (7.6%) and China (6.9%).
There were declines in arrivals from Malaysia, down 13%, as well as the USA which dropped 4.5% and Singapore, down 4.4%.
Overall there were 609,300 short-term visitor arrivals into Australia during May, with the top source being NZ with 107,500 followed by China at 89,500 and then the USA with 48,300.
Source: traveldaily