Saturday, August 17, 2024 International travel has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, with recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing a significant resurgence. Indonesia has emerged as the top destination for Australian travelers, recording 1.5 million trips in 2023-24, outpacing New Zealand by a four-to-one margin.
June 2024 saw 863,950 short-term trips, a 2.6% increase over June 2019 figures, signaling a strong recovery in the travel sector. The data also reveals a shift in the top destinations, with New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan following Indonesia in popularity.
Notably, the United States was the only country in the top five to see a decline in trips compared to a decade ago, with numbers falling from 970,230 in 2013-14 to 714,300 in 2023-24. Short-term visitor arrivals to Australia in June 2024 also increased by 8.4% year-over-year, reaching 587,760, bringing total arrivals to 85% of their pre-COVID 2018-19 levels.
China made a notable leap into the top five countries of origin for short-term visitors, securing the second spot for the first time since the pandemic, with 55,670 arrivals. However, international student arrivals saw a decline, with June 2024 numbers down by 11,390 compared to the previous year, and 14.8% lower than pre-pandemic levels.
The ongoing recovery in travel highlights both the resilience and the changing dynamics of global tourism in the post-pandemic era..