Arrivals and Departures data on the up again

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Pete Faulkner - Tourism, Uncategorized

Yesterday saw the release of the data for May short term overseas arrivals and departures (OAD) and it confirms that the strength in in-bound tourism continues into the second quarter.

Arrivals in May hit a new record high of 680,300 which is up 11.7% from a year ago, while the total for the past 12 months exceeded 7.7 million for the first time and is a 9.3% increase on this time last year. As we have come to expect, the Chinese market remained as a strong performer with arrivals up 17.1% from a year ago to and up almost 23% for the total of the last 12 months. Chinese visitors now make up fully 14.6% of the year’s arrivals (another new record). As we noted last month (see here) these figures bode well for a strong set of data for the second quarter when we get the International Visitor Survey from Tourism Research Australia at the end of August.

Departures were also stronger up 4.5% from a year ago and up 4% for the total of the past 12 months. The number of Aussies travelling overseas in the past 12 months exceeded 9.6 million for the first time in May.