There are two types of Australians: those who have been to Bali and those who haven’t.
However, government reports show, increasingly more of us are visiting Indonesia than any other country.
And we are back to travelling overseas in healthy numbers.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recently released a report showing that Aussies’ love of international travel has come roaring back and is once again at pre-COVID-19 levels.
“The number of residents returning from short-term trips in 2023-24 was 32 per cent higher than in 2022-23, and reached 98 per cent of the 2018-19 pre-COVID volume,” ABS head of migration statistics Jenny Dobak said.
“The number of resident returns each month reached 100 per cent of the 2019 volume in January 2024, for the first time since international travel restrictions were lifted. It has been above 100 per cent of pre-COVID volumes in the following months, with the exception of May 2024.”
Back to Bali
Indonesia, but probably Bali in reality, is our destination country of choice with 1.5 million trips in the 2023-24 financial year.
“Holidays were the leading reason for travel to Indonesia in 2023-24, making up 87.1 per cent of travel there,” Ms Dobak said.
“The growth in Australian resident trips to Indonesia outpaced the increase in trips to New Zealand by around four to one. New Zealand remains as the second most common travel destination with 1.3 million trips to the Land of the Long White Cloud in 2023-24.”
And it seems we are falling out of love with America. The US was the only country in the top-five travel destinations where numbers were lower than 10 years ago, with a total of 714,300 trips, down from 970,230 trips in 2013-14.
The other two countries we love to travel to were Japan in the No. 4 spot, followed by the UK.
Arrivals haven’t bounced back with quite the same vigour, and have only recovered to 85 per cent of 2019-20 levels.
Kiwis top visitor list
Holidays were once again the leading reason for visiting Australia.
“China made a notable movement in the top five countries that short-term visitors arrived from, becoming the second-most popular country for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ms Dobak said.
“India was the fifth-most popular, however it was the only country in the top five to surpass its pre-COVID level.”
New Zealanders were still our most ardent visitors with 1.37 million visits, with China in second place with 800,000 visits, followed by the US, the UK and India.
For visitor arrivals to Australia in June 2024:
- A total of 587,760 short-term trips were recorded, an increase of 45,680 compared with the corresponding month of the previous year.
- The number of trips was 11.0 per cent lower than the pre-COVID level in June 2019.
- New Zealand was the largest source country, accounting for 18 per cent of all visitor arrivals.
All visitors are asked for their address on arrival. For June 2024, the highest number of visitor arrivals for short-term trips travelled to New South Wales (209,940), whilst Tasmania recorded the fewest (3720).
Where would you like to travel this year? Is it on the favourites list? Why not share your wish list in the comments section below?
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