International arrivals and departures data shows China hitting new record highs

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Pete Faulkner - Tourism, Uncategorized

The ABS released their Short Term Arrivals & Departures data for Oct today and it shows, once again, that arrivals from China are continuing to push ahead strongly.

Although total arrivals were slightly lower than last month, and up 6.7% from a year ago, the annual number of arrivals (at just a shade under 7.3 million) were at a new record high and an increase of 6.5% from the same period last year.

One of the most significant drivers of this growth continues to be China. Monthly arrivals hit a new record high of 96,600 in Oct and have hit almost exactly 1 million for the past 12 months (another new record). Over the past year Chinese have accounted for 13.6% of all international arrivals (a new record) and were 15.3% of all arrivals in Oct (also a record).

Short term departures also saw good growth in Oct with a total of 809,100 Aussies travelling abroad; an increase of 7.5% from the same month a year ago. However, over the course of the past 12 months departures are up just 3.4%, and therefore lagging well behind the growth of arrivals. Over the course of the year the “gap” between departures and arrivals has narrowed by 140,000.