Australia’s Travel Volume Is Still Down Compared To 2019

Australia’s travel and tourism industry is grappling with an increase in demand. Yet, the Australian Bureau of Statistics numbers reveals that incoming and outbound traffic is still far below the levels before the pandemic.

For December 2022, there were 529,980 short-term outbound trips reported. This number represents a tenfold increase compared to the same month the year before, although it is still 29.3% lower than the data for December 2019. Similarly, there were 648,980 short-term trips taken by international travellers in December 2022. This represents a significant rise from the previous year, although it is about forty percent lower than the statistics before COVID-19.

More than 15 times as many people travelled to Australia in 2022 as they did the year before when the nation’s borders remained closed until November 1, 2021. In total, 3,694,380 people entered the country throughout the calendar year 2022. The median duration of stay in Australia has dropped to 18 days from 30 days in 2021, and over 48% of tourists who arrived were visiting friends and family.

In addition, there was a rise in outbound travel throughout the calendar year 2022, with a total of 5,225,640 resident returns. This is a growth that is more than 17 times that of 2021. The most common reason for Australians to travel outside of the country in 2022 was for holidays. New Zealand remained the most popular place for Australians to go on vacation outside of the country, accounting for 707,990 trips.

Other popular destinations were Indonesia, which welcomed 612,450 Australian tourists in 2021, significantly increasing from the previous year’s total of only 2,370. The USA emerged in third place with 462 570 trips departing from Australia, followed by the United Kingdom with 416 260, and then India in fifth place with 329 220 trips, barely ahead of Fiji with 318 760.

The market’s lack of airline seat capacity has slowed expansion and driven up airfares.