Pre-COVID, visitors from China were Australia’s single largest source of visitation, with New Zealand coming in a reasonably close second and every other market some distance behind.
The June 2024 figure, just released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), has New Zealand as the top source market, China second and the USA in third.
The ABS numbers also show international travel to Australia has crept up to 85 per cent of 2019 levels for June 2024. The latest Tourism Research Australia figures, which cover the year to March, had recovery at 84 per cent, so visitation recovery appears to be slowing.
The June 2024 figures are an 8.4 per cent improvement on the number of short term international arrivals from a year ago.
Breaking down the results by state, New South Wales had the largest contingent of Chinese travellers, although the market was third overall behind New Zealand and the USA, while it was the second largest market for Melbourne, with New Zealand first and Singapore third.
Overall Tasmania is seeing the smallest proportion of international visitors and it also had the largest slump in visitation between 2023 and 2024 – while most states and territories posted increases, short term international visitation to Tasmania was down 22 per cent in June 2024 compared to June 2023.
Meanwhile, Australians travelling overseas have been at or above pre-COVID levels since January this year – with the exception of May – indicating the tourism industry may be in a bit of a dip, given the disparity between the recovery of outbound Australians and inbound international visitors.
