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International tourist figures still millions below pre-COVID levels as slow recovery continues

For two years, Marcela Ribeiro worked three jobs to save for her dream holiday to Australia.

Like millions of people across the globe, the 35-year-old from Brazil had long wanted to explore the country's world-famous destinations, specifically the Great Barrier Reef, World Heritage-listed rainforest and sandy beaches. 

"I worked really, really hard, many jobs, to get here," Ms Ribeiro said.  

"The flights were very expensive, so I have to watch everything I spend. I can't afford to eat out in the restaurants every day." 

It's been a similar story for William Grbava from Canada and Amelia Mondido from the Philippines, who last week arrived in Australia for a holiday. 

"It's expensive here, much more than we were expecting. We have only been able to factor in a short stop in Sydney," Mr Grbava said. 

"We just had a beer and a pizza in Circular Quay for $50.

 "What I really wanted to do was drive up the coast to Brisbane, through Byron Bay and those beautiful towns. That's what I did when I was younger. But with the cost of fuel and car rental, it wasn't possible." 

Industry yet to recover to pre-COVID levels 

It's been more than four years since Australia's borders suddenly closed to the rest of the world and became one of the most isolated destinations on the globe. 

COVID-19 wreaked havoc across the country's economy, but nowhere was the pain as instant or more devastating as in the tourism industry. 

In 2019, 8.7 million tourists visited Australia from overseas in an industry that was worth $166 billion. 

New figures from Tourism Research Australia show there were only 6.6 million international visitors last year, a deficit of more than 2 million compared to 2019 levels.  

Victoria experienced the largest loss in international visits at 33 per cent, followed by Queensland at 24 per cent and New South Wales at 22 per cent. 

Nationally, Chinese visitor numbers — which made up the bulk of visitors to Australia pre-pandemic — slumped to 507,000 last year, down from 1.3 million in 2019. 

Figures for the month of February show more than 850,000 people visited Australia, an increase of 257,000 for the same time in 2023, but 7.5 per cent less than pre-COVID levels. 

Gui Lohmann from Griffith University's Institute for Tourism said there were a number of reasons for the slow return of international visitors. 

"The airfares are significantly high and we are under an inflationary situation with labour and food costs," Professor Lohmann said. 

"It could be challenging for Australia to reach above 8 million international visitors in the scenario we are in at the moment." 

Professor Lohmann said cost-of-living pressures were also at play in the return of international tourists, as was a "reset" in European thinking.  

"Many Europeans believe a long-haul trip is quite damaging to the environment and they're also flying less generally," he said. 

"Their domestic airline routes no longer exist [and] have been replaced by train trips." 

He said China's ongoing economic problems, the war in Ukraine and United States' election were also having an impact.  

"It's a much more complicated world we are facing after the pandemic," he said. 

A long road to recovery 

Oxford Economics has forecast it could take until 2025-26 before Australian tourism returned to pre-pandemic levels. 

Tourism Australia, a government agency that promotes holidays, said the strongest markets since borders reopened had been New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom. 

"We always knew that the recovery of international travel to Australia would take time, and we have continued to see the steady return of international visitors to our shores," a spokeswoman said. 

Maneka Jayasinghe, a tourism expert at Charles Darwin University, said affordability was a key factor in attracting visitors Down Under.  

She said the state and federal governments should consider subsidising travel to Australia. 

"Measures to reduce costs, such as discounted hotel prices, tourism package deals and food vouchers could be of importance to encourage visitors to Australia," Dr Jayasinghe said. 

"Tourism operators were badly hit during COVID so may not be in a financially viable position to provide further perks to visitors, especially the small-scale operators in smaller states and territories and those operating in remote areas." 

She said re-establishing links with traditional tourism markets, including Japan, was also a potential solution. 

"Countries with a rapidly growing middle class, such as India, could have high potential to grow. Some of the south-east Asian countries, such as Vietnam and Indonesia, could also be attractive due to their proximity to Australia." 

Dutch tourists Tim Erentsen and Laleh Maleki estimated it would cost them around $16,000 for their three-week holiday in Australia, where they are visiting Sydney, the Whitsundays and Cairns. 

"It has been expensive, especially the flights," Mr Erentsen said. 

Ms Maleki said the couple had travelled extensively throughout Europe and the US and the cost of hotels and food in Australia was comparable. 

"We thought if we were coming all this way and spending the money to get here, we should stay a bit longer, which is adding to the cost," Ms Maleki said. 

But despite that extra cost, she said the trip had been worth it. 

"We love the nature, it feels very safe here. The food is so good and the people are very friendly." 

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Fares fall as Australian air travel returns to pre-Covid capacity, Flight Centre says

Higher seat availability has resulted in lower airfares, group says, but cost-of-living pressures continue their impact on holiday plans

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Airlines have finally shaken off the lingering effects of Covid, with capacity back to pre-pandemic levels for the first time, according to data from Flight Centre.

Global seat availability climbed back over 100% of 2019 levels in April, with travellers enjoying lower air fares as a result.

“An analysis of key international routes for Australian travellers found fares on some international routes out of Australia dropped by up to 25%,” said Flight Centre Corporate’s managing director, Melissa Elf. “With more and more capacity and competition being introduced to the market, it’s a trend we’ll continue to see throughout the rest of the year.”

Australia’s international capacity is expected to tick up from 95% to 98% next month, while domestic capacity has been hovering between 98 and 100% for the last few months.

Elf said there are promising signs that air fares will continue to fall beyond the short term, with major carriers – including Delta, Singapore Airlines and China Southern – recently announcing new routes to Australia.

In the first quarter of 2024, flights to Australia’s most popular travel destination Indonesia were down 21% from the previous year at $798 return on average. Available seats to the holiday spot were at 115% of pre-pandemic capacity.

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Capacity to Japan, Qatar and Papua New Guinea are also above pre-Covid levels, while the UK is back even. Routes to Hong Kong and the US have the biggest room for recovery, at just 63% and 70% of pre-pandemic capacity respectively.

International and domestic seat capacity across Qantas and Jetstar recovered to 90% of pre-pandemic levels in the second half of 2023, an increase of 25% on the previous year, the group said.

Despite falling air fares, rising cost-of-living pressures elsewhere are forcing more Australians to holiday within their own state or cancel travel plans altogether.

In a survey of 1,500 Australians conducted by Pure Profile for the travel industry’s peak body, 70% planned to go away for a holiday during the autumn school break, including 41% within their own state, up from 36% during summer.

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A further 21% will holiday interstate and 8% were planning to go overseas.

The Tourism and Transport Forum’s chief executive, Margy Osmond, said it was pleasing to see Australians supporting the local economy and tourism operators.

“But we’re concerned the sector is still feeling the impact of cost-of-living pressures with many families taking shorter holidays than originally planned, staying with friends or relatives to save money or recently cancelling their travel plans altogether,” she said.

Just over half of respondents said cost-of-living pressures had affected their decision to travel, with a quarter saying they would go away for shorter than originally planned as a result.

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International Visitor Survey monthly snapshot

Tourism Research Australia’s monthly snapshots estimate tourism activity.

Main content

From the January 2024 reference month, TRA will return to publishing International Visitor Survey data on a quarterly basis only, with the data for December 2023 being the final monthly release. 

Increased appreciation of the value of tourism data is generating significant additional demand for TRA services. At the same time, there are ongoing challenges with maintaining high quality high frequency data based primarily on survey collections. Ensuring statistical reporting remains robust and fit for purpose into the future is a priority and requires investment in the assessment and development of potential new data sources for use in tourism statistics. Statistical outputs are therefore being reprioritised to balance the timeliness of publications and the quality of releases.  

International tourism December 2023

Tourism Research Australia's (TRA's) monthly snapshots estimate tourism activity in the related month. We also produce quarterly and annual international tourism results .

attach_money Spend in Australia

$2.5 billion | 95% of pre-COVID levels

person Number of trips

783,000 | 81% of pre-COVID levels

brightness_2 Nights spent in Australia

26.4 million | 98% of pre-COVID levels

Notes on the data

• This report compares the month of December 2023 with the pre-pandemic month of December 2019.
• international connections and stopovers (including airfares)
• other pre-travel or post-travel spend in the source market or elsewhere outside Australia. For example, luggage, visas, duty-free retail and ground transport.
• Unless stated otherwise, spend is reported as spend in Australia. This standard is developed using the United Nations Statistics Commission's International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics 2008 . This defines inbound expenditure as only expenditure in the economy of reference.

Key results

International visitor spend and nights spent in Australia exceeded pre-COVID levels at 95% and 98% respectively. Trips to Australia were 81% of pre-COVID levels. The December 2023 results show international visitors: 

• spent $2.5 billion during their trips
• took 783,000 international trips to Australia
• had 26.4 million nights away.

Top 4 reasons for travel

The top 4 main reasons for travel to Australia in the month of December 2023:

• This was 89% of pre-COVID levels. 
• Spend was $580 million, 100% of pre-COVID levels.
• This was 71% of pre-COVID levels. 
• Spend was $1.0 billion, 96% of pre-COVID levels.
• This was 79% of pre-COVID levels. 
• Spend was $163 million, 103% of pre-COVID levels.
• This was 83% of pre-COVID levels. 
• Spend was $601 million, 88% of pre-COVID levels.

Top 5 international visitor markets 

Australia’s top 5 international markets in the month of December 2023: 

• This was 86% of pre-COVID levels.  
• Spend was $174 million, 121% of pre-COVID levels.  
• This was 83% of pre-COVID levels.  
• Spend was $209 million, 79% of pre-COVID levels. 
• This was 85% of pre-COVID levels.  
• Spend was $216 million, 97% of pre-COVID levels. 
• This was 59% of pre-COVID levels.  
• Spend was $410 million, 73% of pre-COVID levels.  
• This was 101% of pre-COVID levels.  
• Spend was $140 million, 122% of pre-COVID levels. 

Regional and capital city visitors and spend 

In December 2023, international visitors made 729,000 trips to Australia’s capital cities. 

• This was 82% of pre-COVID levels.  
• Spend was $2.1 billion, 94% of pre-COVID levels. 

In December 2023, international visitors made 230,000 trips to Australia’s regional areas. 

• This was 68% of pre-COVID levels.  
• Spend was $425 million, 97% of pre-COVID levels.  

Total spend 

Total spend in December 2023 was $4.4 billion. This was 103% of pre-COVID levels.  

Total spend includes purchases made overseas such as:  

• international connections and stopovers (including airfares)  
• other pre-travel or post-travel spend in the source market or elsewhere outside Australia. For example, luggage, visas, duty-free retail and ground transport. 

Data tables

International Visitor Survey results for December 2023 compared to December 2019

• Explore data from our international and national visitor surveys using TRA Online. Find out more on our  Services  page.
• Read the  International Visitor Survey methodology .
• Find previous reports on our  Data and research  page.

Contact TRA

mail   tourism.research@tra.gov.au

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• Solar Eclipse 2024

10 Surprising Facts About the 2024 Solar Eclipse

A total solar eclipse will sweep across North America on Monday, April 8, offering a spectacle for tens of millions of people who live in its path and others who will travel to see it.

A solar eclipse occurs during the new moon phase, when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, casting a shadow on Earth and totally or partially blocking our view of the sun. While an average of two solar eclipses happen every year, a particular spot on Earth is only in the path of totality every 375 years on average, Astronomy reported .

“Eclipses themselves aren't rare, it's just eclipses at your house are pretty rare,” John Gianforte, director of the University of New Hampshire Observatory, tells TIME. If you stay in your hometown, you may never spot one, but if you’re willing to travel, you can witness multiple. Gianforte has seen five eclipses and intends to travel to Texas this year, where the weather prospects are better.

One fun part of experiencing an eclipse can be watching the people around you. “They may yell, they scream, they cry, they hug each other, and that’s because it’s such an amazingly beautiful event,” Gianforte, who also serves as an extension associate professor of space science education, notes. “Everyone should see at least one in their life, because they’re just so spectacular. They are emotion-evoking natural events.”

Here are 10 surprising facts about the science behind the phenomenon, what makes 2024’s solar eclipse unique, and what to expect.

The total eclipse starts in the Pacific Ocean and ends in the Atlantic 

The darker, inner shadow the moon casts is called the umbra , in which you can see a rarer total eclipse. The outer, lighter second shadow is called the penumbra, under which you will see a partial eclipse visible in more locations.

The total eclipse starts at 12:39 p.m. Eastern Time, a bit more than 620 miles south of the Republic of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean, according to Astronomy . The umbra remains in contact with Earth’s surface for three hours and 16 minutes until 3:55 p.m. when it ends in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 340 miles southwest of Ireland.

The umbra enters the U.S. at the Mexican border just south of Eagle Pass, Texas, and leaves just north of Houlton, Maine, with one hour and eight minutes between entry and exit, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) tells TIME in an email.

Mexico will see the longest totality during the eclipse 

The longest totality will extend for four minutes and 28 seconds on a 350-mile-long swath near the centerline of the eclipse, including west of Torreón, Mexico, according to NASA.

In the U.S., some areas of Texas will catch nearly equally long total eclipses. For example, in Fredericksburg, totality will last four minutes and 23 seconds—and that gets slightly longer if you travel west, the agency tells TIME. Most places along the centerline will see totality lasting between three and a half minutes and four minutes.

More people currently live in the path of totality compared to the last eclipse 

An estimated 31.6 million people live in the path of totality for 2024’s solar eclipse, compared to 12 million during the last solar eclipse that crossed the U.S. in 2017, per NASA .

The path of totality is much wider than in 2017, and this year’s eclipse is also passing over more cities and densely populated areas than last time. 

A part of the sun which is typically hidden will reveal itself

Solar eclipses allow for a glimpse of the sun’s corona —the outermost atmosphere of the star that is normally not visible to humans because of the sun’s brightness.

The corona consists of wispy, white streamers of plasma—charged gas—that radiate from the sun. The corona is much hotter than the sun's surface —about 1 million degrees Celsius (1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit) compared to 5,500 degrees Celsius (9,940 degrees Fahrenheit).

The sun will be near its more dramatic solar maximum 

During the 2024 eclipse, the sun will be near “solar maximum.” This is the most active phase of a roughly 11-year solar cycle, which might lead to more prominent and evident sun activity, Gianforte tells TIME.  

“We're in a very active state of the sun, which makes eclipses more exciting, and [means there is] more to look forward to during the total phase of the eclipse,” he explains. 

People should look for an extended, active corona with more spikes and maybe some curls in it, keeping an eye out for prominences , pink explosions of plasma that leap off the sun’s surface and are pulled back by the sun’s magnetic field, and streamers coming off the sun.

Streamers “are a beautiful, beautiful shade of pink, and silhouetted against the black, new moon that's passing across the disk of the sun, it makes them stand out very well. So it's really just a beautiful sight to look up at the totally eclipsed sun,” Gianforte says.

Two planets—and maybe a comet—could also be spotted

Venus will be visible 15 degrees west-southwest of the sun 10 minutes before totality, according to Astronomy. Jupiter will also appear 30 degrees to the east-northeast of the sun during totality, or perhaps a few minutes before. Venus is expected to shine more than five times as bright as Jupiter. 

Another celestial object that may be visible is Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks , about six degrees to the right of Jupiter. Gianforte says the comet, with its distinctive circular cloud of gas and a long tail, has been “really putting on a great show in the sky” ahead of the eclipse.

The eclipse can cause a “360-degree sunset” 

A solar eclipse can cause a sunset-like glow in every direction—called a “360-degree sunset”—which you might notice during the 2024 eclipse, NASA said . The effect is caused by light from the sun in areas outside of the path of totality and only lasts as long as totality.

The temperature will drop 

When the sun is blocked out, the temperature drops noticeably. During the last total solar eclipse in the U.S. in 2017, the National Weather Service recorded that temperature dropped as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. In Carbondale, Ill. for example, the temperature dropped from a peak of 90 degrees Fahrenheit just before totality to 84 degrees during totality.

Wildlife may act differently 

When the sky suddenly becomes black as though nighttime, confused “animals, dogs, cats, birds do act very differently ,” Gianforte says.

In the 2017 eclipse, scientists tracked that many flying creatures began returning to the ground or other perches up to 50 minutes before totality. Seeking shelter is a natural response to a storm or weather conditions that can prove deadly for small flying creatures, the report said. Then right before totality, a group of flying creatures changed their behavior again—suddenly taking flight before quickly settling back into their perches again.

There will be a long wait for the next total eclipse in the U.S.

The next total eclipse in the U.S. won’t happen until March 30, 2033, when totality will reportedly only cross parts of Alaska . The next eclipse in the 48 contiguous states is expected to occur on Aug. 12, 2044, with parts of Montana and North Dakota experiencing totality.

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Number of international visitors Sydney, Australia 2014-2023

International visitor arrival numbers to Sydney, Australia recovered significantly in the year ended December 2023, reaching over three million visitors. Nevertheless, this still remains behind the figures recorded at the peak of Sydney's international visitor economy in 2019, in which over 4.1 million international visitors took a trip to the city. During the given period, international tourist arrival numbers to Sydney plummeted to their lowest in 2021, at around 97 thousand arrivals. 

Number of international visitor arrivals to Sydney, Australia from 2014 to 2023 (in 1,000s)

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Statistics on " Travel and tourism in the United Kingdom (UK) "

• Distribution of travel and tourism expenditure in the UK 2019-2022, by type
• Distribution of travel and tourism expenditure in the UK 2019-2022, by tourist type
• CPI inflation rate of travel and tourism services in the UK 2023
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• Number of outbound tourist visits from the UK 2007-2022
• Leading outbound travel destinations from the UK 2019-2022
• Leading outbound travel markets in the UK 2023, by growth in travel demand on Google
• Number of outbound overnight stays by UK residents 2011-2022
• Outbound tourism expenditure in the UK 2007-2022
• Domestic overnight trips in Great Britain 2010-2022
• Domestic tourism trips in Great Britain 2018-2022, by purpose
• Number of domestic overnight trips in Great Britain 2022, by destination type
• Number of tourism day visits in Great Britain 2011-2022
• Total domestic travel expenditure in Great Britain 2019-2022
• Domestic overnight tourism spending in Great Britain 2010-2022
• Expenditure on domestic day trips in Great Britain 2011-2022
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Other statistics that may interest you Travel and tourism in the United Kingdom (UK)

• Basic Statistic Travel and tourism's total contribution to GDP in the UK 2019-2022
• Basic Statistic Distribution of travel and tourism expenditure in the UK 2019-2022, by type
• Basic Statistic Distribution of travel and tourism expenditure in the UK 2019-2022, by tourist type
• Basic Statistic Travel and tourism's total contribution to employment in the UK 2019-2022
• Premium Statistic Median full-time salary in tourism and hospitality industries in the UK 2023
• Premium Statistic CPI inflation rate of travel and tourism services in the UK 2023

Inbound tourism

• Basic Statistic Inbound tourist visits to the UK 2002-2023
• Premium Statistic Inbound tourist visits to the UK 2019-2022, by purpose of trip
• Basic Statistic Leading inbound travel markets in the UK 2019-2022, by number of visits
• Premium Statistic Leading inbound travel markets in the UK 2023, by growth in travel demand on Google
• Premium Statistic Number of overnight stays by inbound tourists in the UK 2004-2022
• Premium Statistic International tourist spending in the UK 2004-2023
• Premium Statistic Leading inbound travel markets for the UK 2019-2022, by spending
• Premium Statistic Leading UK cities for international tourism 2019-2022, by visits

Outbound tourism

• Premium Statistic Number of outbound tourist visits from the UK 2007-2022
• Premium Statistic Outbound tourism visits from the UK 2019-2022, by purpose
• Premium Statistic Leading outbound travel destinations from the UK 2019-2022
• Premium Statistic Leading outbound travel markets in the UK 2023, by growth in travel demand on Google
• Premium Statistic Number of outbound overnight stays by UK residents 2011-2022
• Premium Statistic Outbound tourism expenditure in the UK 2007-2022

Domestic tourism

• Premium Statistic Domestic overnight trips in Great Britain 2010-2022
• Premium Statistic Domestic tourism trips in Great Britain 2018-2022, by purpose
• Premium Statistic Number of domestic overnight trips in Great Britain 2022, by destination type
• Premium Statistic Number of tourism day visits in Great Britain 2011-2022
• Premium Statistic Total domestic travel expenditure in Great Britain 2019-2022
• Premium Statistic Domestic overnight tourism spending in Great Britain 2010-2022
• Premium Statistic Expenditure on domestic day trips in Great Britain 2011-2022
• Premium Statistic Average spend on domestic summer holidays in the United Kingdom (UK) 2011-2023

Accommodation

• Premium Statistic Number of accommodation businesses in the United Kingdom (UK) 2008-2021
• Premium Statistic Number of accommodation enterprises in the United Kingdom (UK) 2018-2021, by type
• Premium Statistic Turnover of accommodation businesses in the United Kingdom (UK) 2008-2021
• Premium Statistic Turnover of accommodation services in the United Kingdom (UK) 2015-2021, by sector
• Premium Statistic Number of hotel businesses in the United Kingdom (UK) 2008-2021
• Basic Statistic Most popular hotel brands in the UK Q3 2023
• Premium Statistic Consumer expenditure on accommodation in the UK 2005-2022

Travel behavior

• Premium Statistic Attitudes towards traveling in the UK 2023
• Premium Statistic Travel frequency for private purposes in the UK 2023
• Premium Statistic Travel frequency for business purposes in the UK 2023
• Premium Statistic Share of Britons taking days of holiday 2019-2023, by number of days
• Premium Statistic Share of Britons who did not take any holiday days 2019-2023, by gender
• Premium Statistic Share of Britons who did not take any holiday days 2019-2023, by age
• Premium Statistic Leading regions for summer staycations in the UK 2023
• Premium Statistic Preferred methods to book the next overseas holiday in the UK October 2022, by age
• Premium Statistic Travel & Tourism market revenue in the United Kingdom 2018-2028, by segment
• Premium Statistic Travel & Tourism market revenue growth in the UK 2019-2028, by segment
• Premium Statistic Revenue forecast in selected countries in the Travel & Tourism market in 2024
• Premium Statistic Number of users of package holidays in the UK 2018-2028
• Premium Statistic Number of users of hotels in the UK 2018-2028
• Premium Statistic Number of users of vacation rentals in the UK 2018-2028

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The World’s Slowest Express Train and Other Mind-blowing Rail Trivia

Posted: August 18, 2023 | Last updated: December 9, 2023

Facts to send you off the rails

The US has the largest railway network

You might be surprised to hear that the US has the largest railway network in the world , and by a large margin. With a total route length over 155,342 miles (250,000km), it's two-and-a-half times longer than the second-largest network in China. It's the US freight rail network that makes up 80% of the staggering length while passenger rail, run by Amtrak, is comprised of more than 30 train routes connecting 500 destinations across 46 American states.

Glacier Express is the world's slowest express

The slowest express service in the world, Switzerland's Glacier Express takes a whooping eight hours to cover a distance of just 181 miles (291km). That's because the scenic route takes in sights like Oberalp Pass, the highest point of the journey, and the Landwasser Viaduct – a six-arch bridge which stands at 213 feet (65m) and plunges straight into a tunnel that leads through the mountain. The day-long trip covers 91 tunnels, 291 bridges and offers the chance to take in stunning alpine meadows, mountain lakes and chalets. 

The steepest railway is also in Switzerland

The steepest cogwheel railway in the world , this train, ferrying passengers up to the summit of Mount Pilatus, is no mean feat. Reaching a maximum gradient of up to 48% it can be a challenging journey as it feels like the train is about to topple over at any second. The track's steep gradient is not its only spine-chilling feature. Clinging on to the mountainside, the train passes through tunnels carved into the mountain which open up to sweeping views of the surrounding landscape.

This is the longest distance you can travel by train...

Crossing two continents, the incredible journey from Porto in Portugal to Singapore is the longest you could possibly do by train alone. Covering an approximate distance of 10,000 miles (16,000km), the route leads from Porto to Warsaw in Poland before traveling east to Beijing in China. From there the journey turns south to Vietnam and reaches Singapore via Cambodia and Thailand. The full journey would cost around $7,000 and would take at least 12 days to complete.

...and the longest direct service

However, if you're after the world's longest direct train service, you'll find it in Russia. With two scheduled trains, an express departing once every two days and a regular service departing daily, the Trans-Siberian route from Moscow to Vladivostok is the longest direct train journey in the world . It covers 5,772 miles (9,289km), crosses eight time zones and takes 166 hours (144 hours on the express) to complete, which is equivalent to almost a full week. The train has 142 stops and passes through 87 cities and towns.

The longest railway tunnel is also the deepest

Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland is not only the longest but also the deepest railway tunnel in the world . It runs for 35.5 miles (57km) with a maximum depth of 8,040 feet (2,450m) – that’s eight times the height of The Shard in London. The tunnel provides a high-speed link under the Swiss Alps between central and southern Europe.

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Middleton Railway is the oldest railway still in operation

Founded in 1758, the Middleton Railway in Leeds, England operates as a heritage railway today but it was originally opened to transport coal from the Middleton pits to Leeds, which led to the city becoming a center for many developing industries. In 1812 it also became the first commercial railway to use steam locomotives successfully. Passenger services on the line didn't begin until 1969 and today visitors can still ride trains and visit the museum.

Strasburg Rail Road is America's oldest

America’s oldest operating railroad, the Strasburg Rail Road first puffed off the buffers in 1832. Today it takes its passengers on a whistle-stop tour through Pennsylvanian Amish country. Four steam locomotives still pull original rolling stock on the 45-minute round trip to and from Paradise, and an audio commentary dispenses nuggets of knowledge on the nation’s oldest continuously operating short line railway.

The busiest train station

Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, Japan is the busiest train station in the world with over 3.6 million passengers passing through daily. The station has more than 200 exits and is made up of five smaller stations. Europe's busiest is Gare du Nord in Paris, France, serving around 214 million passengers every year while Penn Station in New York City is the busiest in North America , with a thousand passengers alighting and departing every 90 seconds.

Check out these beautiful images of the world's train stations

The world's highest railway

Traveling at an extreme altitude, the Qinghai–Tibet railway is the highest line in the world , extending between Golmud and Lhasa. Just five pairs of passenger trains run along these tracks as each has to be specially equipped for high elevation. For example, the locomotives are turbocharged to combat the effects of extreme altitude, the passenger carriages on Lhasa trains have an oxygen supply for each passenger and there's a doctor on every train. The line's highest point (and also the highest in the world that can be reached on a train) is the Tanggula Pass at 16,640 feet (5,071m) above sea level.

Seven Stars is the world's most exclusive train

Japan's Seven Stars is a so-called cruise train that takes travelers on a multi-day tour around the island of Kyushu and is often considered to be among the most exclusive and expensive train journeys in the world . Bagging a ticket on this exquisite service is not as easy as just heading to the booking site – only 28 passengers travel on each journey, so prospective riders must enter a lottery to be invited to purchase a ticket for an upcoming departure.

These are the jaw-dropping rail journeys you'll never forget

Canada's first transcontinental train

Built between 1881 and 1885, the Canadian Pacific Railway's first line connected eastern Canada with British Columbia – an incredible achievement considering the diverse landscape the train had to traverse. The first train to travel the full route departed Montreal's Dalhousie Station at 8pm on 28 June 1886 and reached the final terminus on the western seaboard, Port Moody, at noon on 4 July. Here, that first train is photographed in Fernie, some 600 miles (900km) east from Port Moody.

Take a look at incredible images that capture the history of train travel

The first train to traverse Australia

Indian Pacific travels on a very special track...

Today the trip aboard the Indian Pacific spans four days, three nights, three time zones and passes through the scenic Blue Mountains as well as across the famous Nullarbor Plain. Here the train travels on the world's longest straight stretch of railroad, which extends for 303 miles (487km).

...and stops at the most remote train station in the world

On this remarkable straight stretch of tracks you'll also find the world's most remote train station . Although Cook was once an important stopping point on the long journey across Australia, today it's more a ghost town with just four residents left. The trains still stop here to refuel and serve as a rest stop for the drivers, but if any passenger was to get off here, they would be about 62 miles (100km) from the nearest road and around 513 miles (826km) away from the nearest city.

These are Australia's eeriest abandoned towns and villages

This is the highest railway bridge in the world

Taking from 2004 to 2022 to be built, this remarkable bridge across the Chenab river in India is  the world's highest . Suspended 1,178 feet (359m) above the river – that's 98 feet (30m) higher than the Eiffel Tower – the railway line crossing the bridge connects Udhampur and Baramulla. The full length of the bridge is  1,532 feet (1,315m) and will surely make for a spine-tingling ride.

You can walk across these breathtaking bridges

Can you pronounce the longest train station name?

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch – you'll find this remarkable train station in Wales in the UK. Exactly 58 letters long, the station serves the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and roughly translates as St Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St Tysilio near the red cave in English. As it turns out, the name has no historic significance and is a marketing gimmick from the 1880s to attract tourists that stuck.

You can ride the Hogwarts Express in real life

Dubbed Britain's most scenic train route, the West Highland Line runs from the Scottish city of Glasgow to Fort William before continuing its journey towards the port of Mallaig. After a brief stop in Fort William, the train crosses the Glenfinnan Viaduct – the same bridge the Hogwarts Express crosses in the Harry Potter movies. What's more, the Jacobite Steam Train was used as the Hogwarts Express in the movies and is available to ride during the summer months (roughly April to October).

Discover beautiful train journeys that don't cost a fortune

There are ghost trains running in London

Did you know that several times a week there are empty ghost trains traveling in and out of London? Due to complicated legal procedures required to shut a railway line in the UK, it's cheaper to just run a so-called ghost train down the line every now and then. Currently, there are four services running on otherwise disused lines that don't stop or take on passengers – Overground to Battersea Park, Overground to Enfield via Stratford, Chiltern to West Ealing and Southeastern to Beckenham.

Murder on the Orient Express isn't set on the Orient Express

Bookworms and movie buffs alike might be surprised to hear that Agatha Christie's famous novel isn't exactly true to fact . By the 1920s and 1930s there was a whole host of trains connecting various European cities with Orient Express featuring in their name in addition to the Orient Express itself. The events described in the book take place on the Simplon Orient Express, which departed from Calais via Paris Gare de Lyon while the Orient Express departed Paris Gare de l'Est.

World's oldest travel agent was started thanks to a train journey

The expansion of railways in the UK is what inspired businessman Thomas Cook to create the world's first travel agent . He ran his first trip on 5 July 1841, escorting around 500 people to a teetotal rally in Loughborough from Leicester.  After organizing tours of the UK and Europe for World's Fairs, Cook set up shop on Fleet Street in 1865 and began offering travel services. Pictured is a train ready to leave London Victoria on a Thomas Cook vacation to Italy in March 1937.

There are more than 20 countries without a railway network

Although many countries without a railway system are island nations (like Tonga) or among the smallest countries in the world (like San Marino) others, like Oman, Qatar and Kuwait, all lack a railway network mostly because the transport systems there are highly dominated by roads. Others like Malta and Cyprus used to have train lines, but they closed as they proved to be financially unsustainable. Iceland doesn't have a public railway system either, mostly due to harsh weather, however, plans have been made to build a high-speed airport railway.

You could go to the Moon and back on trains

There are approximately 807,783 miles (1.3 million km) of railway tracks on Earth . And while it certainly sounds like a lot, it's hard to imagine how far exactly that is. Put into perspective, the Moon is 238,855 miles (384,400km) away, which means there are enough tracks on Earth to go to the Moon and back, go to the Moon again and come back nearly halfway. 

Maglev is the fastest train in the world

Traveling at a mind-boggling speed, Shanghai's maglev (magnetic levitation) train is the fastest passenger train in the world . With a spine-tingling operational speed of 267mph (430km/h), the train connects Shanghai Pudong International Airport with Longyang Road Station in the outskirts of Pudong. Traveling at an average speed of 143mph (230km/h) , the 19-mile-long (30km) journey can be completed within eight minutes.

There's a station without an entrance or an exit

A railway station in Japan exists just so passengers could get off the train and admire the stunning landscape. Located on the Nishikigawa Seiryu line in southern Japan, the Seiryu-Miharashi station has just one small platform only accessible to passengers passing through on the train. The platform looks over the Nishiki River and the surrounding forest, and the passengers have about 10 minutes to take in the views before the train leaves again.

There's a secret station hidden under the Waldorf Astoria

Hidden deep below New York’s Grand Central Station and the Waldorf Astoria, the city’s first skyscraper hotel, there is a secret train platform known as Track 61 . Although the station was allegedly used to secretly transport VIPs including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the platform was actually built as a powerhouse and storage area for unused New York Central Railroad cars and not as a passenger station. 

Now take a look at more abandoned stations around the world

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Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia methodology

• Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia methodology Reference Period January 2024
• Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia methodology Reference Period December 2023
• Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia methodology Reference Period November 2023
• View all releases

Introduction

1. This page provides a reference of the various methods and changes that occur from time to time that may impact the quality of OAD statistics. Changes can be due to any part of the end-to-end processing, from passenger data collection to the output of OAD statistics. They can range from the design, provision and collection of the passenger cards through to the administrative systems and updates at Home Affairs. They can also result from better capture of passenger data, methodological improvements or improved processing systems.

Abbreviations

Classifications.

1. The classification of countries in this release is the Standard Australian Classification of Countries, 2016 . For more detailed information, refer to the ABS release Standard Australian Classification of Countries, 2016 . The entire historical series has been backcast using this version of the classification.

2. The statistics on country of residence or main destination, and country of embarkation or disembarkation have certain limitations because of reporting on passenger cards. For example many travellers just list the UK on their passenger card rather than stating England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland.

State and territory

1. Overseas arrivals and departures data covers Australia and its states and territories, as defined by the Australian Statistical Geography Standard 2016 . Jervis Bay Territory, the Territories of Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Norfolk Island are included as one spatial unit at the State and Territory level under the category of Other Territories. 

Historical changes to the State and Territory classification

2. Following the 1992 amendment to the Acts Interpretation Act, the Indian Ocean Territories of Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands were included as part of geographic Australia. To reflect this change, another category was created, known as Other Territories which also included Jervis Bay Territory (previously included with the Australian Capital Territory). Overseas arrivals and departures data for Other Territories commenced from February 1995.              3. Norfolk Island was included in the Other Territories category from July 2017 following the introduction of the Norfolk Island Legislation Amendment Act 2015. Prior to this, Norfolk Island was an external territory and not included within geographic Australia.

Confidentiality

1. The Census and Statistics Act, 1905 provides the authority for the ABS to collect statistical information, and requires that statistical outputs shall not be published or disseminated in a manner that is likely to enable the identification of a particular person or organisation.

2. Some techniques used to guard against identification or disclosure of confidential information in statistical tables are suppression of sensitive cells, random adjustments to cells with very small values and rounding. In these cases data may not sum to totals due to the confidentialisation of individual cells.

3. The statistics in this release have been rounded to the nearest 10 to maintain confidentiality. Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of component items and totals. All calculations and analysis are based on un-rounded data. Calculations made on rounded data may differ to those published.

Data sources

1. Administrative information on persons arriving in, or departing from, Australia is collected via various processing systems, passport documents, visa information, and incoming passenger cards (see Passenger card image section). Aside from persons travelling as Australian or New Zealand citizens, persons travelling to Australia are required to provide information in visa applications. These administrative data are collected by the Home Affairs under the authority of the Migration Regulations 1994 made under the Migration Act 1958.

2. ABS statistics on overseas arrivals and departures (OAD) are mainly compiled using information from Home Affairs sources. All overseas movement records are stored on Home Affairs' Travel and Immigration Processing System (TRIPS). Each month all OAD movement records and related information, including those matched to an incoming passenger card, are supplied to the ABS and then processed.

3. From July 2017, due to the removal of the outgoing passenger card, the ABS has also used Medicare enrolment data. This is a secondary source of state or territory of residence information for Australian residents and is used for a small proportion of records.  For further information see ABS Privacy Impact Assessment Report 'Traveller Information and Medicare Enrolment PIA' released on the 12 September 2017. 

Australian resident

For a resident returning it is someone not travelling on a temporary visa and has self identified as an Australian resident when completing an incoming passenger card. From 1 July 2007, Resident departures include all Australian citizens, permanent visa holders, and any New Zealand citizens who can be identified as a resident.

Category of travel

Overseas Arrivals and Departures data are classified according to length of stay (in Australia or overseas), as recorded by travellers on passenger cards, or derived with reference to previous border crossings. There are three main categories of movement and 10 sub-categories:

Permanent movement;

• permanent arrivals (PA)
• permanent departures (PD) - only available prior to July 2007.

Long-term movement - has a duration of stay (or absence) of one year or more;

• long-term resident return (LTRR)
• long-term visitor arrival (LTVA)
• long-term resident departure (LTRD)
• long-term visitor departure (LTVD).

Short-term movement - has a duration of stay (or absence) of less than one year;

• short-term resident return (STRR)
• short-term visitor arrival (STVA)
• short-term resident departure (STRD)
• short-term visitor departure (STVD).

A significant number of travellers on the first leg of their journey (i.e. overseas visitors on arrival to Australia) state exactly 12 months or one year as their intended duration of stay. The majority of these travellers actually stay for less than their intended duration of stay and on their departure from Australia are therefore classified as short-term movements (i.e. less than 12 months) at the second leg of their journey. Accordingly, in an attempt to maintain consistency between an arrival and the corresponding departure, and improve the quality of statistics on the duration of stay measurement, movements of travellers who report their intended duration of stay as being exactly one year automatically have their duration of stay imputed. The duration of stay of these travellers is imputed using the actual recorded duration of stay from donors who have similar characteristics from two years earlier.

• Country of birth

Country of birth refers to the country in which a person was born. For Overseas Arrivals and Departures data, the country of birth is usually collected from a traveller's passport or visa information.

Country of citizenship

Country of citizenship is the nationality of a person. For Overseas Arrivals and Departures data it is usually taken from a traveller's passport or visa information and in some cases from their passenger card.

• Country of embarkation

Country of embarkation is collected from flight information, or, for long-haul flights, from travellers' passenger cards in response to the following question:

• For someone arriving in Australia - In which country did you board this flight or ship?

Country of residence/stay

Country of residence/stay is collected from the country a traveller indicates on their passenger card.

• For overseas visitors to Australia, it is their country of residence prior to travel as recorded on their passenger card or visa.
• For Australian residents, it is the country in which they spent most time abroad (i.e. their country of stay). 

Departures SmartGate system

Departures SmartGate is a secure system that automates the checks otherwise conducted by a Border Force officer at Australian airports. Departing travellers use SmartGates to self-process through passport control at Australia's International airports.

Duration of stay

The duration of stay can be accurately measured for most travellers, especially when the second leg of their journey has been completed. For visitors arriving, it is based on their intended length of stay in Australia.

Intended length of stay

On arrival in Australia, all overseas visitors are asked to state their 'Intended length of stay in Australia'.

Long-term arrivals

Long-term arrivals comprise long-term visitor arrivals (LTVA) and long-term resident returns (LTRR).

Long-term departures

Long-term departures comprise long-term resident departures (LTRD) and long-term visitor departures (LTVD).

Long-term resident departures (LTRD)

Australian residents who stay abroad for 12 months or more. For a list of the categories see category of travel in this glossary.

Long-term resident returns (LTRR)

Australian residents returning after 12 months or more overseas. For a list of the categories see category of travel in this glossary.

Long-term visitor arrivals (LTVA)

Overseas visitors who state that they intend to stay in Australia for 12 months or more (but not permanently). For a list of the categories see category of travel in this glossary.

Long-term visitor departures (LTVD)

Overseas visitors departing after a recorded stay of 12 months or more in Australia. For a list of the categories see category of travel in this glossary.

Main reason for journey

Overseas visitors/temporary entrants arriving in Australia and Australian residents returning to Australia are asked to state their main reason for journey using the following categories:

• convention/conference;
• visiting friends/relatives;
• employment;
• education; and

For any distribution, the median value is that which divides the relevant population into two equal parts, half falling below the value, and half exceeding it. Thus, the median age is the age at which half the population is older and half is younger.

Median duration

For any distribution, the median value is that which divides the relevant population into two equal parts, half falling below the value, and half exceeding it. Thus, the median duration is the duration at which half the population spent less time and half spent more time.

Overseas arrivals and departures (OAD)

Overseas arrivals and departures (OAD) refer to the recorded arrival or departure of persons through Australian air or sea ports (excluding operational air and ships' crew). Statistics on OAD relate to the number of movements of travellers rather than the number of travellers (i.e. the multiple movements of individual persons during a given reference period are all counted).

Overseas visitor

An overseas visitor is any traveller arriving to or departing from Australia who is not a resident or permanent arrival. An overseas visitor can travel for either a long-term duration of stay (12 months or more) or a short-term duration of stay (less than 12 months). 

Passenger card

Passenger cards are completed by nearly all passengers arriving in Australia. Information including: country of previous residence, intended length of stay, main reason for journey, and state or territory of intended stay/residence is collected. An example of the current Australian passenger card is provided under 'Passenger card images' in the left hand side navigation bar.

Passenger card box type

Due to the removal of the outgoing passenger card from July 2017, box types D, E and F no longer exist. For further information see 2017 within the History of changes section.

a. Country of residence/stay is not collected from the passenger card for permanent arrivals. However, some information is collected from some permanent arrival visas.  

Permanent arrivals

Permanent arrivals comprise:

• travellers who arrive on a permanent migrant visas for the first time;
• New Zealand citizens who indicate for the first time an intention to migrate permanently; and
• those who are otherwise eligible to settle (e.g. overseas born children of Australian citizens).

For a list of the categories see category of travel in this glossary.

Permanent visa

A visa allowing the holder to remain indefinitely in Australia's migration zone.

Port of clearance

The air or sea port where a traveller is cleared for international travel by the Australian Border Force.

See Australian resident.

Resident returns

See Short-term resident returns (STRR).

The sex ratio relates to the number of males per 100 females.

Short-term arrivals

Short-term arrivals comprise of short-term visitor arrivals (STVA) and short-term resident returns (STRR).

Short-term departures

Short-term departures comprise of short-term resident departures (STRD) and short-term visitor departures (STVD).

Short-term resident departures (STRD)

Australian residents who stay abroad for less than 12 months. For a list of the categories see category of travel in this glossary.

Short-term resident returns (STRR)

Australian residents returning after a recorded stay of less than 12 months overseas. For a list of the categories see category of travel in this glossary.

Short-term visitor arrivals (STVA)

Overseas visitors who intend to stay in Australia for less than 12 months. For a list of the categories see category of travel in this glossary.

Short-term visitor departures (STVD)

Overseas visitors departing after a recorded stay of less than 12 months in Australia. For a list of the categories see category of travel in this glossary.

State or territory of clearance

The state or territory where a traveller is cleared for international travel by the Australian Border Force. Also see port of clearance.

State or territory of residence/stay

State or territory in which overseas visitors lived/stayed or the state or territory in which residents live/lived.

On arrival, overseas visitors are asked on their passenger card for their state or territory of intended address in Australia. Residents returning to Australia are asked on their passenger card for their state or territory of intended address.

Temporary entrants

See temporary visas.

Temporary visas

Temporary entrant visas are visas permitting persons to come to Australia on a temporary basis for specific purposes. Main contributors are tourists, international students, those on temporary work visas, business visitors and working holiday makers.

Permission or authority granted by the Australian government to foreign nationals to travel to, enter and/or remain in Australia for a period of time or indefinitely.

Visa applicant type

Under the Migration Regulations 1994, there are two types of applicants - primary and secondary applicants.

The primary applicant is generally the person whose skills or proposed activities in Australia are assessed by Home Affairs as part of their visa application. They will usually have been specifically identified on the application form as the 'main applicant'.

A secondary applicant is a person whose visa was granted on the basis of being a family member (e.g. spouse, dependent child) of a person who qualified for a primary visa. They will have been identified on the visa application as an 'other' or secondary applicant with the person who met the visa criteria being specifically identified on the visa application as the 'main applicant'.

Visa group - permanent family visas

Persons who have arrived in Australia on a Child, Partner, Parent or Other Family stream visa. These migrants are selected on the basis of their family relationship (spouse, de facto partner, intent to marry, child, parent, other family) with their sponsor who is an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand Citizen.

Visa group - permanent other visas

Includes humanitarian and refugee visas as well as all other permanent visa holders.

Visa group - permanent skilled visas

Those categories of the Migration Program where the core eligibility criteria are based on the applicant's employability or capacity to invest and/or do business in Australia. The immediate accompanying families of principal applicants in the skill stream are also counted as part of the skill stream.

This definition of skill stream is used by Home Affairs who administer the Migration Program.

Visa group - temporary other visas

Includes other temporary visas not already stated.

Visa group - temporary student visas

These are overseas students who undertake full-time study in a recognised educational institution.

Visa group - temporary skilled visas

Includes Temporary Work (Skilled) (subclass 457) visa holders who were permitted to travel to Australia to work in their nominated occupation for their approved sponsor for up to four years as well as the Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa (subclass 482).

Visa group - temporary visitor visas

A visitor is any traveller arriving to or departing from Australia who is not a resident. A visitor can be either short-term (less than 12 months) or long-term (12 months or more). Visitor visa holders are non-permanent entrants to Australia whose visa is for tourism, medical treatment, short stay business or visiting relatives.

Visa group - temporary work visas

Known as Working Holiday Makers visa and includes subclasses 417 and 462. Permits young adults from countries with reciprocal bilateral arrangements (with Australia) to undertake short term work or study while holidaying in Australia.

Visitor arrivals - short-term trips

See Short-term visitor arrivals (STVA).

History of changes

July 1998, permanent departures.

1. Prior to July 1998, the number of overseas-born (excluding NZ) permanent departures of Australian residents was overstated.

2. In July 1998, Home Affairs introduced a box type validation edit to the processing system. The edit checked and corrected the box type according to the Visa Class/subclass. With the exception of Australian and NZ citizens, only Australian residents departing permanently (Box F) who hold permanent visas were retained in this box type. For temporary visa holders who incorrectly ticked Box F, their box type was changed to visitor or temporary entrant departing (Box D).

July to December 1998, reason for journey

3. Before the introduction of the redesigned passenger card in July 1998, 5% of short-term visitor arrivals, on average, were recorded as having a reason for journey of 'Other' or 'Not Stated'. This percentage rose to 14% for July, 16% in August and 29% in September 1998 as a result of processing problems. These problems were addressed by Home Affairs, with the percentage of 'Other' and 'Not Stated' dropping to 8% and 7% in October and November respectively.

4. From January 1999, OAD statistics referencing these three months have been revised. The revised data were calculated by estimating the number of persons responding 'Other/Not Stated' using past trends for each country of citizenship and proportionally allocating any persons in excess of the estimated 'Other/Not Stated' total amongst the remaining categories.

July to December 1998, state or territory of residence/stay

5. For the months of August 1998, September 1998 and October 1998, data entry problems experienced by Home Affairs caused an overstatement of the Northern Territory as the main state of stay with a corresponding understatement for the remaining states and territories. In November 1998 these numbers returned to levels more comparable with previous years, with Home Affairs indicating that they had instigated data quality procedures to address this issue.

6. From January 1999, OAD statistics referencing these months have been revised. The revised data were calculated by estimating the number of persons indicating the Northern Territory as their main state of residence/stay using past trends and proportionally allocating any persons in excess of these estimates amongst the remaining states and territories.

7. With the introduction of the new processing system from July 2001, Home Affairs started providing the ABS with data on all missing values for state or territory of residence/stay. From July 2001 to Jun 2004, any missing state or territory of residence/stay were imputed using category of movement and state of clearance.

September 1998, age, country of birth, citizenship and sex

8. A problem was experienced in the processing of OAD data for movement dates between 6 September 1998 and 16 September 1998 following the introduction of changes to Home Affairs' input processing system. This problem may affect around 10% of all September 1998 records used in estimation and result in incorrect details for citizenship, date of birth, sex and country of birth.

 September 1999, China and Hong Kong

1. September 1999 overseas arrivals and departures data were revised for movements to and from China and Hong Kong for three variables: country of birth, country of citizenship and country of residence/stay. Changes to 'country of birth' and 'country of citizenship' have been made from data supplied by Home Affairs. Changes to 'country of residence/stay' have been made by assuming the average proportion of country of birth to country of residence/stay for migrants from China and Hong Kong in September 1995 to September 1998.

New Zealand - permanent arrivals or residents

1. Under the Trans-Tasman Agreement, New Zealand (NZ) citizens are not required to have a visa to travel to Australia. As a result, on their arrival in Australia, visa documentation cannot be used to determine whether they are either a permanent migrant or a temporary visitor, or an Australian resident returning from NZ. Analysis undertaken by Home Affairs suggests that a substantial proportion of NZ passport holders tick Box A (migrating permanently to Australia) each time they arrive in the country, causing an overcount of NZ migrants entering Australia. The following edits were applied to arrival movements to correct the overcounting of NZ migrants.

2. From July 2001 to June 2002, Home Affairs coded all NZ citizen arrivals who had ticked Box A (migrating permanently to Australia) and had been to Australia previously (based on Home Affairs records) to residents returning (Box C). However, if these people were visitors previously, this recoding had the effect of incorrectly reducing the number of NZ migrants whilst at the same time incorrectly increasing the number of NZ citizen who were returning residents. This problem was overcome by coding the NZ citizens who had been changed by Home Affairs from Box A to Box C back to Box A.

3. Since July 2002, Home Affairs has utilised a new edit system to ensure accurate measurement of permanent arrivals of NZ citizens. Where a person ticks Box A on their passenger card (migrating permanently to Australia), the record is verified by checking previous entries and related passenger card records, and if the person is previously recorded as a permanent migrant or resident then they will be counted as returning residents. This resulted in more accurate recording of NZ citizens who were migrating permanently to Australia and those who were residents returning.

July 2004, all data

1. In 2013, the ABS completed a rebuild of the system which creates OAD data. The rebuild of the system resulted in a break in series, necessitating a revised time series for OAD data based on the improved methodology from July 2004 to December 2013. The break in series was from July 2004. Most of this has now been superseded due to the 2017 review which has revised the series from July 2007 onwards.

July 2007, all data

1. In 2017, due to the removal of the outgoing passenger card, the ABS undertook a review of its OAD statistics, methodology and processing systems. The review resulted in a break in series, necessitating a revised time series for OAD data from July 2007 to June 2017 based on the new methodology. Figures prior to June 2007 may not be strictly comparable to those which follow.

July 2007 to June 2017 data revised

1. In April 2023, the ABS identified a data quality issue with the visa group for “Other Visas” being unusually high. The issue was identified as being due to a processing issue which prevented some arrivals records from having their correct visa subclass and state of clearance counted.  To fix this issue, the ABS has reprocessed the affected records.

2. Revised Overseas Arrivals and Departures data from September 2007 to August 2015 was released in the March 2023 issue. The time series spreadsheets for Tables 13, 15 and 16 were revised.

3. A second group of affected records spanning July 2007 to June 2017 was revised and released in the April 2023 issue. The time series spreadsheets for Tables 13, 15 and 16 were revised.

The 2013 review of OAD statistics

1. In 2013, the ABS undertook a major review of its OAD statistics, methodology and processing systems. The primary aim was to improve the quality of OAD data, given its importance as an input to a broad range of statistical outputs. The new system was thoroughly tested by processing over ten years of data. Imputation methods for missing traveller data were improved, in particular the duration of stay and the country of birth variables. For further information see the 'Imputations and derivations' section.

2. The rebuild of the system resulted in a break in series, necessitating a revised time series for OAD data based on the improved methodology from July 2004 to December 2013. The break in series was from July 2004. Most of this has now been superseded due to the 2017 review which has revised the series from July 2007 onwards.

January 2013, duration of stay and reason for journey

3. Investigations by the ABS and Home Affairs uncovered a high non-response rate for both duration of stay and reason for journey for the month of January 2013. This was mainly due to changes to the collection and processing of passenger cards, which were introduced in that month. January is the only month that was affected and the non-response rates for subsequent months were at an acceptable level.

October 2014 to May 2015, delay in OAD statistics and missing passenger cards

1. A number of releases of Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia were delayed. This was due to an attempted transition to a new provider of passenger card processing by Home Affairs. During this period there was a higher number of  cards missing than expected.

July 2016, Norfolk Island

1. From 1 July 2016, Norfolk Island was integrated into Australia for administrative purposes. Travel between mainland Australia and Norfolk Island is no longer considered an international movement and has been excluded from the Overseas Arrivals and Departures statistics.

September 2016, New Zealand citizen long-term resident returns to Australia

2. The ABS became aware of an increase in resident returns to Australia by New Zealand citizens with an overseas stay of one year or more (long-term resident returns). This increase is visible from September 2016 onwards and is not fully supported by real world explanations and has been traced to the input data ABS has received from Home Affairs. This issue has been flagged as a data quality concern and is being investigated by Home Affairs.

The 2017 review of OAD statistics

1. From 1 July 2017, travellers leaving Australia were no longer required to complete an Outgoing Passenger Card (OPC) .

2. Due to the removal of the OPC by the Department of Home Affairs, the ABS undertook a review of its Overseas Arrivals and Departures (OAD) statistics, methodology and processing systems. This provided an opportunity to consider alternative data sources and ways to make better use of a range of existing data collected by Home Affairs about Australia's international border crossings.

3. The review resulted in a break in series, necessitating a revised time series for OAD data from July 2007 to June 2017 based on the new methodology. Figures prior to June 2007 may not be strictly comparable to those which follow.

4. For this 10 year period, the ABS used the existing data collected from the OPC for the following variables: Country of Disembarkation, Country of Residence, Country of Stay (but not for Australian residents departing), Reason for Journey, State of Residence, and State of Stay. From 1 July 2017, after the removal of the OPC, each of these variables use their alternate source or are no longer available as identified in Table 1 below.

Data no longer available due to the 2017 review

5. Although the majority of the OAD data has continued to be published, some data items that were previously available are no longer available from 1 July 2017 as a result of the retirement of the OPC. They include:

• Permanent Departures for Australian residents are no longer published. Analysis of historical OAD data indicates that quality was not high for this category. For example, many travellers stating an intention of permanently departing return to Australia within twelve months or were actually not Australian residents. Net Overseas Migration statistics (published quarterly in National, state and territory population ) are a better measure of long-term overseas migration. Permanent Departures are no longer available for the revised series from July 2007. Permanent Departures of Australian residents have been grouped with all Australian Citizen and Resident Departures.
• Country of Disembarkation for Visitors and Australian residents departing.
• Country of Stay for Australian citizens or residents departing is no longer available for the revised series from July 2007. An alternate source for this variable is Australian residents returning to Australia (i.e. a resident's second leg of journey). The ABS has produced a full 10-year historical trend and seasonally adjusted series for Short-term Resident Returns from July 2007 to June 2017 to assist data users transitioning to the new series.
• Main Reason for Journey for Australian residents departing - from 1 July 2017, an amended Incoming Passenger Card (IPC) has been used to collect data for an alternative to this series. Australian residents returning are asked to provide their ‘main reason for overseas travel’. Therefore, the main reason for journey is provided for all Short-term Resident Returns and Long-term Resident Returns from July 2017 onwards.

Data that has changed due to the 2017 review

6. All data items, other than those outlined above will continue to be available. However, with the use of additional data sources, some definitional changes, and changes to the methods applied, all OAD data will change to some degree. In particular:

Moving from a passenger card base to an all movements base

7. Previously, OAD data was based on a count of all passenger cards collected. Historically, this was usually 99% of all movements stored on Home Affair's Travel and Immigration Processing System (TRIPS). In the revised data from July 2007, the ABS has used all movements stored on the TRIPS system. This has provided a full count and an improved measurement of all overseas arrivals and departures.

Accessing pre and post-reference date data

8. By accessing all movements stored on the TRIPS system, the ABS is able to make use of information from a corresponding incoming passenger card to acquire information about departure movements from Australia. Pre-reference date data includes all previously processed historical records, whereas the post-reference date data includes all TRIPS records up to and including 27 days after the end of the reference month.

Use of alternate data sources

9. Information from existing electronic movement records maintained by Home Affairs is able to provide state of residence for most movements. A small number of records do not have state of residence able to be derived from the data supplied to ABS by Home Affairs. The ABS worked closely with Home Affairs, Tourism Research Australia, the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services to identify and test alternate data sources to the OPC that could provide state of residence information. Medicare enrolments were identified as the only viable source for this information given the vast majority of Australian residents are registered with Medicare.

10. Some variables in OAD data have changed.  The removal of the OPC has directly impacted on the variables listed in the table below. Their availability, any alternate sources to be used, and definitional changes are also noted.  All other variables have not been directly affected. Changes to overseas arrivals data have been minimal. For some variables there has been minor improvement.

.. not applicable  

11. To identify a New Zealand citizen as a resident or a visitor, the following rules are applied. For a departure movement, if any individual (including New Zealand Citizens) has self-identified as a resident (Box C from the incoming passenger card) on their return trip (i.e. only up to 27 days after the reference month is available), then they are deemed to be a resident at the departure. In addition, the ABS is able to measure exactly how long since an individual's previous arrival. If a New Zealand citizen has been measured to be living in Australia for one year or more prior to departure, they are then identified as a resident departing. For all other New Zealand citizens departing they are deemed to be a visitor departing.

July to November 2017, state or territory of stay/residence

12. The ABS identified a data quality issue with state or territory of stay/residence for the period July to November 2017, with estimates for the Northern Territory being understated and a corresponding overstatement for New South Wales. The cause was identified as a coding issue with the new incoming passenger card, introduced from July 2017.

13. Affected cards were re-processed and revised statistics for July to November 2017 were included in the December 2017 issue of Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia. The result of this revision is that estimates for the Northern Territory are approximately 30-40% higher in the revised data.

July 2017 to February 2018, state or territory of stay/residence

14. Investigations by the ABS and the Department of Home Affairs identified quality issues with the capture and coding of state or territory of stay/residence from incoming passenger cards from July 2017 onwards. A resolution to these issues was implemented and data re-processed. Revised OAD data from July 2017 to February 2018 was released in the March 2018 issue.

15. For the difference between revised and previously published OAD data for Short-term visitor arrivals and Short-term resident returns by State or territory of residence/stay, see Table 6 at the end of the  Data Quality Issues Appendix in the March 2018 issue.

July 2017 main reason for journey

16. In July 2017 the Department of Home Affairs discontinued the outgoing passenger card and introduced changes to the layout of the incoming passenger card in order to capture the main reason for journey for residents returning to Australia, as well as visitors arriving in Australia.

17. As the layout of the potential responses on the card changed from this point, there were some changes to the distribution of responses to the question on main reason for journey for short-term visitor arrivals, most notably an increase in the number of persons reporting that the main reason for travel was visiting friends and relatives and a decline in the number of persons reporting the main reason was a holiday. Following an extensive investigation of this issue, ABS modelling suggests that the proportion of people reporting visiting friends and relatives was approximately 4 percentage points higher, and holiday approximately 4 percentage points lower, after the introduction of the revised card layout. Also following this investigation, improvements were made by Home Affairs to the process of capturing and coding main reason for journey from the card, and the ABS has further reviewed and made improvements to imputation of reason for journey.

18. Therefore, when comparing statistics on reason for journey between periods before and after July 2017, users should consider the changes noted above.

March to May 2018, state or territory of stay/residence

1. Investigations by the ABS and the Department of Home Affairs identified quality issues with the capture and coding of state or territory of stay/residence from incoming passenger cards from March 2018 onwards. A resolution to these issues was implemented and data re-processed. Revised OAD data from March to May 2018 was released in the June 2018 issue. All time series spreadsheets and data files were revised. For the difference between revised and previously published OAD data for Short-term visitor arrivals and Short-term resident returns by State or territory of residence/stay, see Table 6 at the end of the  Data Quality Issues Appendix in the July 2018 issue.

April to July 2018, country of residence/stay

2. In June 2018, the ABS identified a data quality issue with the country of residence of Bangladesh being implausibly high for short-term visitor movements. There was a corresponding decrease for Singapore and Malaysia. To fix this issue Home Affairs implemented a procedural change in September 2018. For the period from April to August 2018 the ABS identified the affected records and amended them by assigning to either Malaysia or Singapore. The amendments were based on historically observed distributions for travellers on visa subclass 601, stratified by country of embarkation and country of citizenship. Revised OAD data from April to July 2018 was released in August 2018 issue. All time series spreadsheets and data files were revised. For the difference between revised and previously published OAD data for Short-term visitor arrivals for Bangladesh, Singapore and Malaysia by country of residence, see Table 6 at the end of the Data Quality Issues Appendix in the August 2018 issue.

September 2019, overseas visitor arrivals - short-term trips - corrections

1. A replacement issue containing corrected data on short-term visitor arrivals was released on 6 December 2019. It included corrections to some key statistics dot points and to some columns in Tables 1, 3, 4 and 5 of the Time Series Spreadsheets. Data on individual countries was not affected.

February 2020, COVID-19 and travel restrictions

1. On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. Initially the Australian Government placed travel restrictions on those travelling to Australia from mainland China commencing 1 February 2020 and restrictions on other countries soon followed. From 20 March 2020, all overseas travel was banned, with few exceptions. The pandemic has continued to disrupt international travel.

February 2020 onwards, suspension of trend estimates

2. Trend estimates have been suspended from February 2020 for all Short-term Visitor Arrivals (STVA) and Short-term Resident Returns (STRR) series due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international travel.

3. Trend series attempt to measure the underlying behaviour in passenger travel movements. This measurement may be affected by unusual influences in the original and seasonally adjusted data, like those currently observed for February 2020. These current influences are expected to continue for the coming months. If trend estimates were calculated without fully accounting for these unusual influences, they would be likely to provide a misleading view of the underlying trend in activity over the longer term.

4. Trend estimates will be reintroduced when patterns in the underlying behaviour of passenger travel movements stabilise.

5. For more details on trend estimates, please see the 'Seasonally adjusted and trend estimates' section and the ABS Feature Articles: Methods changes during the COVID-19 period (cat. no. 1359.0 for Jun 2020) and  When it's not "Business-as-usual": Implications for ABS Time Series (cat. no. 1350.0 for Aug 2009).

April 2020 onwards, suspension of seasonally adjusted estimates

6. Seasonally adjusted estimates have been suspended from April 2020 for all Short-term Visitor Arrivals (STVA) and Short-term Resident Returns (STRR) series due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international travel.

7. Seasonally adjusted estimates will be reintroduced when patterns in the underlying behaviour of passenger travel movements stabilise.

8. For more details on seasonally adjusted estimates, please see the 'Seasonally adjusted and trend estimates' section and the ABS Feature Articles: Methods changes during the COVID-19 period (cat. no. 1359.0 for Jun 2020) and  When It's not "Business-as-usual": Implications for ABS Time Series (cat. no. 1350.0 for Aug 2009).

April to July 2021, COVID-19 and trans-Tasman travel bubble

1. From 19 April to 23 July 2021 a trans-Tasman travel bubble was in place, allowing quarantine-free travel between Australia and New Zealand.

November 2021 onwards, COVID-19 and easing of travel restrictions

2. From 1 November 2021, the Australian Government began to ease international travel restrictions with some fully vaccinated groups. Initially, Australian citizens and permanent residents were permitted to travel to and from Australia without exemption. This was then extended to citizens from additional countries and eligible visa holders.

July 2021 to February 2022 data revisions

1. In March 2022, the ABS identified a data quality issue, with the state and territory of stay/residence being implausibly high for NSW. The issue was due to the capture and coding of state or territory of stay/residence from incoming passenger cards from July 2021 onwards.  To fix this issue, the ABS worked with Home Affairs and the Australian Border Force and arranged for the affected cards to be re-processed and re-supplied. 

2. Revised OAD data from July 2021 to February 2022 was released in the March 2022 issue. All time series spreadsheets and data files were revised. For the difference between revised and previously published OAD data for short-term visitor arrivals and short-term resident returns by state or territory of residence/stay, see table below. 

• As published in previous issues of Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia (cat. no. 3401.0).
• A positive number means the revised data is higher than the previously published data and a negative number means it is lower.

January to March 2022 data revisions

3. Due to improvements made to the quality of the imputations used to estimate duration of stay, OAD data from January to March 2022 was revised and released in the April 2022 issue.  These imputations use historical data and have been impacted by changed travel behaviour during the COVID-19 travel restrictions period. For further information about the duration of stay imputations refer to the Imputations and derivations section on the left hand navigation bar and then the List of variables imputed.  

4. The following categories of travel were revised: short-term resident departures; long-term resident departures; short-term visitor arrivals; and long-term visitor arrivals. For the difference between revised and previously published data, see table below. 

(a) As published in previous issues of Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia (cat. no. 3401.0). (b) A positive number means the revised data is higher than the previously published data and a negative number means it is lower.

February 2022, removal of travel restrictions

5. On 21 February 2022, the Australian Government removed the travel restrictions for all fully vaccinated visa holders.  For more information, see the  media release on reopening to tourists and other international travellers .

Imputations and derivations

1. Every effort is made to minimise errors, both through careful design of the passenger cards and through checks on the information once it is received by the ABS. During the editing process some items are corrected where they conflict with other known information. There are a number of derivations and imputations undertaken that improve the quality of variables with missing responses.

2. First, the ABS utilises alternate sources where available. The sources currently available from Home Affairs include: all overseas movements data stored on the TRIPS system, monthly missing country of birth data, and monthly New Zealand passport data. An additional alternate source used for state or territory of residence is Medicare enrolment data - see 'state or territory of stay/residence' in the 'List of variables imputed' below.

3. For certain variables that are missing, information about an individual can be derived from these alternate sources including an individual's nearest other travel movement. This is able to be done from Home Affairs sources, by using the unique person identification number to link to the various sources and over time. For example, by accessing all movements stored on the TRIPS system, the ABS is able to make use of information from a corresponding incoming passenger card to acquire information about an individual's departure movement. Pre-reference date data includes all previously processed historical records, whereas the post-reference date data includes all TRIPS records up to and including 27 days after the end of the reference month.

4. The variables which are available from accessing these alternate sources include: country of birth, country of citizenship, country of residence/stay, duration of stay, passenger card box type, and state of residence/stay.

5. Second, a 'hot deck' imputation method is then used for any remaining missing responses. For 'hot deck' imputation, a record with missing responses (called the recipient), receives those of another similar record (called the donor) which has a full set of responses before the imputation process began. The recipient record keeps all of its original responses and only has the missing variables imputed, thereby keeping as much of the collected information for that record as possible.

6. The 'hot deck' imputation method uses a set of characteristics that choose the donor and recipient records which are as similar as possible. The characteristics used within the OAD system to align a recipient with a suitable donor, vary between the different imputations. A combination of different characteristics was tested for each of the imputations to ascertain which would give the best results. The characteristics used include: age, country of birth, country of citizenship, country of residence/stay, direction of traveller, category of movement, passenger card box type, sex, state of clearance and visa group.

7. The variables which are subject to 'hot deck' imputation are: age, country of birth, country of citizenship, country of embarkation, country of residence/stay, duration of stay, passenger card box type, reason for journey, sex and state of residence/stay, and a specific one for the country of birth of New Zealand (NZ) citizens. All missing values for these variables are fully imputed except country of residence/stay for permanent arrivals. However, from July 2017, due to the removal of the outgoing passenger card, the following are not imputed: country of disembarkation for any departures and country of stay for any Australian resident departures as both are no longer collected.

List of variables imputed

1. The primary source for data on this variable is passport or visa information. An alternate source used is the incoming passenger card. Age is calculated using date of birth. For the hot deck imputation, the variables used to align the recipient with a suitable donor are: the passenger card box type and visa group. Generally, prior to using the hot deck imputation for age, the missing rate is less than 1% of all records. All records are fully imputed for this variable.

2. The primary source for data on this variable is passport or visa information if available. It is not available from the passenger card. The majority of imputations are for NZ citizens. 3. There are three separate parts to the imputation for country of birth. A specific imputation is in place for the country of birth of New Zealand (NZ) citizens, as data for this variable is not directly available from the passport or visa of NZ citizens. For details see 'Specific imputation for country of birth of New Zealand citizens' below in this section.

4. The second is a hot deck imputation and is only used for non-NZ citizens. For this imputation, the variables used to align the recipient with a suitable donor are: category of movement and country of citizenship.

5. The third part is only used if partial information is supplied. For example, if Europe was supplied it would then be imputed to a country in Europe. The specific region or country grouping provided as the recipient's country of birth is used to align the recipient with a suitable donor for imputation. For the example noted above the donor would be a country from Europe.

6. Generally, prior to using the hot deck imputation for country of birth for non-NZ citizens, the missing rate is less than 1% of all records. All records are fully imputed for this variable.

7. The primary source for data on this variable is passport or visa information. An alternate source used is the incoming passenger card.

8. There are two separate parts to the hot deck imputation for country of citizenship. The first part is used if the data is missing. For this imputation the variables used to align the recipient with a suitable donor are: direction, visa group, and country of birth.

9. The second part is only used if partial information is supplied. For example, if Europe was supplied as the nationality it would then be imputed to a country in Europe. The specific region or country grouping provided as the recipient's country of citizenship is used to align the recipient with a suitable donor for imputation. For the example noted above the donor would be a country from Europe.

10. Generally, prior to using the hot deck imputation for country of citizenship, the missing rate is less than 1% of all records. All records are fully imputed for this variable.

11. The primary source for data on this variable is the incoming passenger card. When the passenger card is missing, the alternate source is flight schedule information. Prior to July 2007, the only available source for data on this variable was the passenger card. From July 2017, the country of disembarkation for all departures was no longer available due to the removal of the outgoing passenger card. It is therefore no longer available for visitors departing or Australian residents departing.

12. There are two separate parts to the hot deck imputation for country of embarkation. The first part is used if the data is missing. For this imputation the variables used to align the recipient with a suitable donor are: category of movement and country of residence/stay.

13. The second part is only used if partial information is supplied. For example, if Europe was supplied it is imputed to a country in Europe. The specific region or country grouping provided as the recipient's country of embarkation is used to align the recipient with a suitable donor for imputation. For the example noted above the donor would be a country from Europe.

14. Generally, prior to using the hot deck imputation for country of embarkation, the missing rate averages less than 7% of all records. All records are fully imputed for this variable.

15. The primary source for data on this variable is the incoming passenger card. From July 2017, the country of residence/stay for Australian citizens and resident departures was no longer available due to the removal of the outgoing passenger card. For visitors departing the primary source used is now an individual's arrival passenger card from their previous movement. For example, the vast majority of travellers (excluding permanent migrants) have two legs to their journey, such as an arrival followed by a departure. As historical data is available, retrieving an individual's previous movement (where possible) allows for the country of residence to be collected for a visitor departing. Country of Stay for Australian citizens and residents departing is no longer available for the revised series from July 2007.

16. An alternative data source is visa information which may be used for some travellers when available, although this is limited. Prior to July 2007, the primary source for data on this variable was the original arrivals or departures passenger card (from the reference movement), and alternately visa information for some travellers.

17. There are two separate parts to the hot deck imputation for country of residence/stay. The first part is used if the data is missing. For this imputation the variables used to align the recipient with a suitable donor are: category of movement, region of citizenship, and visa group. Country of citizenship has also been used from April 2020.

18. The second part is only used if partial information is supplied. For example, if Europe was supplied then it is imputed to a country in Europe. The specific region or country grouping provided as the recipient's country of residence/stay is used to align the recipient with a suitable donor for imputation. For the example noted above the donor would be a country from Europe.

19. Generally, prior to using the hot deck imputation for country of residence/stay, the missing rate averages less than 22% of all records. Country of residence/stay is not imputed for permanent arrivals and since July 2007 not for Australian citizens and residents departing as well. All other records are fully imputed.

20. Prior to the '2013 Review of OAD Statistics' and the revision back to July 2004, the ABS imputed this data item in two stages. In the first stage, records with country of residence/stay missing were set to country of disembarkation/embarkation if a response was available. In the second stage, for remaining records where country of stay/residence was missing, values were imputed at the category of movement, reason for journey and country of citizenship level based on responses to other cards within each subgroup. For permanent arrivals, imputation was undertaken using a combination of country of embarkation and the stated responses of other permanent arrivals.

Duration of stay - current

21. Data on this variable is from two separate sources; firstly, it can be sourced directly from the travellers' recorded intention and secondly, it can be measured using movement dates. These methods have been applied on the revised data series from July 2007 and are outlined below.

• First, for visitors or temporary entrants arriving in Australia (i.e. first leg of their journey) the primary source is the arrivals passenger card and is based on a travellers' intended duration of stay. 
• Second, the actual duration of stay is measured based on a traveller's movement dates in and out of the country. By accessing all movements stored on the TRIPS system, the ABS is able to maximise the use of pre and post-reference date data, to acquire information about an individual's first or second leg of journey. Pre-reference date data includes all previously processed historical records back to April 2002, whereas the post-reference date data includes all TRIPS records up to and including 27 days after the reference month.  

22. If the reference movement is the second leg of a journey, the exact dates a traveller crosses the Australian border are both available and therefore record a traveller's actual duration of stay. This applies to visitor departures and resident returns which are second leg of journey movements.

23. For resident departures, the reference movement is the first leg of journey and the intended duration is not available due to the removal of the outgoing passenger card. Accessing the post-reference date data (up to 27 days after the reference month) enables the measurement of the actual duration for the vast majority (usually above 80%) of resident departures. If the intended duration of stay is missing for a visitor arrival then this secondary source will also be used. Any remaining records with a missing duration of stay are imputed.

24. The quality for actual measured duration of stay recorded at the second leg of a journey is more accurate than that based on a traveller's intended duration of stay. In the example below for resident departures in June 2017, you can see prominent spikes for intended duration of stay at 1 week, 10 days, 2 weeks, and 3 weeks which is very different to the actual measured duration.

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25. If duration is unable to be sourced from the dot points noted above then it is imputed. There are three separate hot deck imputations used for duration of stay (points 26 through to 28 below).

26.  The first imputation is used if duration of stay is missing but excludes any resident departures (see point 28 below). For this imputation, the variables used to align the recipient with a suitable donor are: passenger card box type, country of citizenship and visa group.

27. The second imputation is only used when a visitor has put one year exactly as their intended duration of stay on the arrival passenger card. It only applies to temporary entrants. This imputation reflects historical patterns that clearly show the majority stay less than one year. The imputation first involves creating an historical dataset based on information from 2017. It then calculates the actual recorded duration of stay for those travellers who had originally put one year exactly as their intended duration of stay. This group becomes the required donor pool. For this imputation the variables used to align the recipient with a suitable donor are: passenger card box type, country of citizenship and corresponding month. For the proportion imputed to either a long-term stay or a short-term stay, as an example see Table 1 below.

28. The third imputation is used when a resident departure has not had its actual duration already measured using the post-reference date data up to 27 days after the reference month (i.e. residents who had not yet returned). Similar to the second method noted above, this imputation involves creating an historical data set based on information from 2017. It then calculates the actual recorded duration of stay for those travellers who had originally been flagged for imputation in 2017. This group becomes the required donor pool. For this imputation the variables used to align the recipient with a suitable donor are: passenger card box type, corresponding week of the month, country of birth and visa group. Due to this method used, duration of stay is only able to be imputed up to 1 year and 11 months. For the proportions imputed to either a long-term stay or a short-term stay, as an example see Table 2 below.

29. Classification of duration of stay by category of movement is as follows:

• Permanent arrivals: Duration of stay not applicable - set to zero.
• Visitor arrival - first leg of journey: intended duration of stay as stated by visitors on incoming passenger cards, otherwise imputed.
• Visitor departure - second leg of journey: actual duration of stay measured using the most recent arrival date, otherwise imputed.
• Resident returning - second leg of journey: actual duration of absence measured using the most recent departure date, otherwise imputed.
• Resident departure - first leg of journey: actual duration of absence measured using the most recent departure date up to 27 days after the reference month, otherwise imputed.  

30. For a complete list of the categories of movement, see the Glossary.

Duration of stay - historical

31. Over time, there have been a number of changes to information collected on duration of stay. Initially, the intended duration of stay was only collected from information provided by all travellers on incoming and outgoing passenger cards in the intended length of stay fields. Therefore historically, the first leg and second leg of a journey both collected duration of stay based on intention.

32. With the introduction of TRIPS by Home Affairs in July 1990, the new system made possible the calculation of the actual length of stay/absence for travellers on the second leg of their journey (i.e. departing overseas visitors and returning Australian residents). This calculation based on TRIPS data commenced in July 1998. This change resulted in an improvement in data quality for duration of stay. In particular, for the distribution of the number of passengers staying for one year exactly declining significantly for this group of travellers.

33. The introduction of a new passenger card processing system from July 2001 provided further evidence of travellers rounding to one year exactly for their intended duration of stay in Australia or overseas. To reflect the historical movement patterns, the records with a reported duration of one year exactly were allocated to short-term or long-term. For visitors arriving in Australia, 75% of such records were allocated to short-term and 25% to long-term. For residents departing Australia, the distribution was 67% short-term and 33% long-term. With the '2013 Review of OAD Statistics', these proportional splits were able to be based on the behaviour of travellers from two years earlier - see Table 1. This method was applied to the revised data from July 2004. With the '2017 Review of OAD Statistics' and the removal of the outgoing passenger card, this method is not applicable for resident departures. It has been applied to the revised data from July 2007.

34. There is evidence to suggest that when completing the intended duration of stay question on the incoming passenger card (Box B), some passengers are entering their arrival/departure date or their birth date rather than their intended duration of stay. From September 2003, a rule was implemented to the data processing system at Home Affairs stating that if all three elements are complete (years, months and days), then the intended duration of stay was to be coded to a non-response.

35. Prior to July 2004, a simple assumption was put in place that set any traveller with a missing duration of stay to 10 days and therefore to a short-term movement.

36. Missing response rates for the duration of stay are only available since November 1998. Prior to this, imputation carried out as part of processing by Home Affairs prevented reliable estimation for missing duration of stay.

37. The primary source for arrivals data on this variable is the incoming passenger card. Administrative systems at Home Affairs and the ABS are also used as an alternate source for some travellers. During the editing process some items are corrected where they conflict with other known information. For example, all travellers with a permanent arrival visa arriving for the first time would be converted to Box A (migrating permanently to Australia) or all visitors on a temporary visa would be converted to a Box B (for arrivals).

38. Due to the removal of the outgoing passenger card in July 2017, the source for box type for departures data has changed. It has changed from a passenger declaration from the card to a derivation from the administrative data provided by Home Affairs. The definitions for Box D (Visitor departures) and Box E (Australian resident departures) have also needed to change as noted below. Box F (Permanent departures for Australian residents) is no longer available. In addition, a revised 10 year historical time series based on this definitional change was introduced from July 2007.

39. Variables from the TRIPS system used by the ABS to derive box type for all departures include: country of citizenship, visa type, duration of stay, and box type from the corresponding incoming passenger card.

40. From July 2007, Box E (All Australian citizen and resident departures) includes all Australian citizens, permanent visa holders, and any New Zealand citizens who can be identified as a resident. 

41. A New Zealand citizen is identified as a resident if they have not departed Australia for the past 12 months and are thus deemed to be living in Australia. In addition, if an individual has self-identified as a Box C (resident) on the incoming passenger card on their return movement using the post-reference date data (up to and including 27 days after the end of the reference month) then they are assumed to have been a Box E (resident) on departure.

42. From July 2007, Box D (Visitor departures) includes travellers identified with a temporary visa or New Zealand citizen. It does not include Australian citizens who previously had self-identified on the OPC as visitors.

43. If any movements are not identified for Box E (residents departure) above, including NZ citizens, then they are assumed to be Box D (visitors departing). In addition, if an individual has self-identified as a Box B (visitor) on the incoming passenger card on their previous movement using the pre-reference date data then they are assumed to have been a Box D (visitor) on departure.

44. The hot deck imputation is only applied to arrival records as all departure box types are fully allocated based on the rules noted above. The variables used to align the recipient with a suitable donor are: direction of traveller, visa group and country of citizenship. From July 2004 to June 2007, sampled or non-sampled data were used instead of visa group data. In addition, the variable 'stay-intent' based on 'intention to live in Australia for next 12 months (for arrivals only)' was also used.

45. Historically, prior to using the hot deck imputation for passenger card box type, the missing rate is less than 1% of all records. All records are fully imputed for this variable.

Reason for journey

46. The only source available for data on this variable is the incoming passenger card. Reason for journey is only available for visitor arrivals and from July 2017 for resident returns. Prior to July 2017, it was available for resident departures, however, it is no longer available due to the removal of the outgoing passenger card.

47. For the hot deck imputation, the variables used to align the recipient with a suitable donor are: category of movement, sampled or non-sampled data, visa group, age, duration of stay, country of citizenship region group and mode of transport. Prior to July 2017, donors used were: category of movement, sex and age. Prior to July 2007, donors used were: sampled or non-sampled data, passenger card box type, category of movement, and age.

48. Generally, prior to using the hot deck imputation for reason for journey, the missing rate averages less than 7% of all records. All records are fully imputed for this variable.

49. The only sources available for data on this variable are passport or visa information. For the hot deck imputation the variables used to align the recipient with a suitable donor are: the passenger card box type and visa group. Generally, prior to using the hot deck imputation for sex, the missing rate is less than 1% of all records. All records are fully imputed for this variable.

State or territory of stay/residence

50. The primary source for data on this variable is the incoming passenger card. From July 2017, for all departures the source used is an individual's nearest arrival movement where possible. For example, the vast majority of travellers (excluding permanent migrants) have two legs to their journey, either an arrival followed by a departure or vice versa, a departure followed by an arrival. By retrieving an individual's most recent other arrival movement (where possible) this allows for the state or territory of residence/stay to be collected for that same individual's arrival passenger card.

51. By accessing all movements stored on the TRIPS system, the ABS is able to make use of information from a corresponding incoming passenger card to acquire information about departure movements from Australia. Pre-reference date data includes all previously processed historical records, whereas the post-reference date data includes all TRIPS records up to and including 27 days after the end of the reference month.

52. As some departures from Australia do not have a recent corresponding incoming movement record, a small number of records do not have state of residence able to be derived from the data supplied to ABS by Home Affairs.

53. The ABS worked closely with Home Affairs, Tourism Research Australia, the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services to identify and test alternate data sources to the OPC that could provide state of residence information. Medicare enrolments were identified as the only viable source for this information given the vast majority of Australian residents are registered with Medicare.

54. Medicare enrolment records are supplied to the ABS by the Department of Human Services. The information supplied to the ABS for this purpose does not include any Medicare claims or other health information. Each month, the ABS attempts to link movement records to a corresponding Medicare enrolment record to obtain state or territory of residence. This data linkage is undertaken in a dedicated facility and follows strict protocols to protect security and confidentiality. While many movement records relate to persons who are non-residents or otherwise are not eligible for Medicare, all persons with a movement in the reference period are in scope for the linkage. Overall, approximately 57% of movement records were able to be linked to a Medicare enrolment record and state or territory of residence is able to be obtained for approximately 95% of Australian residents. Medicare enrolments information is used as the source of state of residence/stay in OAD statistics for approximately 3% of movements.

55. If state of residence/stay is not available from any of these sources, it is imputed. For the hot deck imputation the variables used to align the recipient with a suitable donor are: the passenger card box type, state of clearance, country of citizenship and visa group.

56. Generally, prior to using the hot deck imputation for state or territory of stay/residence, the missing rate averages less than 4% of all records. All records are fully imputed for this variable.

Specific imputation for country of birth of New Zealand citizens

1. With the introduction of biometric passports for New Zealand (NZ) citizens in April 2005, the country of birth information was removed from the passport and replaced with a place of birth, for example Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch or Melbourne. The passport was the only source of information on the country of birth of NZ citizens travelling to, or from, Australia. For other travellers who are not NZ citizens, country of birth information can be obtained from their passport or visa information. However, visa information for most NZ citizens is not available as, under the Trans-Tasman agreement, they do not need to hold a visa prior to travel to Australia.

2. Therefore, with the increased numbers of travellers holding NZ biometric passports, the proportion of movement records with a missing country of birth has increased substantially. For April 2005, NZ passport holders represented only 6% of the missing country of birth records, however by April 2007 this had increased to 79%. Thirteen years later, NZ passport holders are consistently representing over 90% of these missing records.

3. In 2013, a special imputation for country of birth of NZ citizens was introduced with data revised back to July 2004. It improved country of birth statistics in OAD, and also outputs on Net Overseas Migration (NOM), and the Estimated Resident Population by country of birth.

4. There are five steps to the process used to generate country of birth when it is missing (these are captured in paragraphs 5 to 9 below).

5.  Prior to the hot deck imputation, if country of birth is missing for a NZ citizen the system will scan historical records of NZ citizens back to 2003 to see if there is an earlier record of the individual's country of birth. This is made possible through the use of a unique personal identifier provided to each traveller who crosses Australia's international border. This step looks for a record with a matching personal identifier and if one is found, will use the country of birth of the matched record. In 2016 approximately 78% of records with a missing country of birth were being matched with an historical record for the same individual.

6.  If country of birth is still unknown after Step 1, the system will scan all previous imputations for country of birth for NZ citizens to see if there is an existing record for that individual. This ensures an individual's country of birth is only ever imputed once although they may cross Australia's international borders many times.

7.  If country of birth is still unknown after Step 2, but there is a place of birth supplied on the NZ biometric passport, then a place to country of birth concordance is used. This concordance is dynamic and is updated each month from the historical time series, which is also updated monthly with additional data supplied by Home Affairs. The number of records for each place of birth, separately within each country of birth, is then determined cumulatively from the historical time series. That is, if the name of a place of birth is used in more than one country, for example - 'Wellington' can be found in Australia, Canada, NZ, South Africa, UK and the USA, then the method adds up the number of instances within each of those countries from the historical series. Where a record is missing country of birth, the imputation will consider all possible donors with a matching place of birth. It will then choose a random donor based on its probability of occurring from the concordance, and copy across the donor's corresponding country of birth.  By the end of Step 3, up to 98% of NZ citizens with a missing value have been provided a country of birth.

8.  If country of birth is still unknown after Step 3, but there is a place of birth supplied, then a search is done on all NZ towns and place names. If a match is found, it is assumed the country of birth of that record is New Zealand. Very few records are imputed using this step.

9.  Lastly, if country of birth is still unknown for any NZ citizen after all other steps are taken, then the standard hot deck imputation is applied but only for non-New Zealand-born as it is assumed any New Zealand-born will have been picked up in the previous four steps. Usually, fewer than 1% of records are imputed using this step.

Passenger card images

Incoming card - front.

Incoming card - back

Provisional estimates

1. From June 2021 this publication contains some provisional statistics on the international travel movements of persons arriving in, and departing from, Australia.

2. This additional data is being included in response to COVID-19 and the heightened interest in traveller data. The data does not incorporate arrival card information and the use of other administrative data. The data is provisional and has not had the full quality assurances applied during the standard processes normally undertaken for Overseas Arrivals and Departures (OAD).

Provisional statistics compared with OAD statistics

3. Data from the Travel and Immigration Processing System (TRIPS) is the main data source for both the regular monthly OAD data and the additional provisional data. The provisional data is used in its raw form. The ABS makes no alterations, imputations or logical edits to this data. No adjustments are made for missing data items.  The provisional data are unable to be broken down by short-term movements and long-term movements, as occurs in the regular monthly OAD data.

4. However, because they are based on the same main data source, top level data in the Overseas Arrivals and Departures collection and the provisional estimates  are very closely aligned. The comparison is shown in Figure 1 (All Arrivals) and Figure 2 (All Departures).

State and territory of clearance

5. State and territory of clearance is based on the international airport or sea port of clearance whereby an international traveller is cleared by Australia's Border Force. Users should take care not to confuse this with state and territory of residence/stay. For more information, see the Glossary.

1. OAD statistics are usually derived from a combination of full enumeration and sampling. All permanent arrivals and all arrivals with a duration of one year or more (long-term arrivals) have always been fully enumerated. From July 2007, all departures have been fully enumerated. From April 2020 to February 2022, full enumeration was undertaken for all arrivals, due to the small volume of international travel movements caused by international travel restrictions. Sampling was reintroduced from 1 March 2022 for arrivals of trips of less than one year (short-term arrivals). The travel volumes are being monitored by the ABS and the sample of short-term arrivals is being updated as volumes continue to increase.

2. All arrivals with a duration of less than one year (short-term arrivals) were sampled. While the total number of travellers and their citizenship was fully known, statistics for other characteristics of short-term arrivals (such as their state/territory of stay/residence) were based on a sample and may differ slightly from those that would be obtained from complete processing. The sample was a fixed skip based on a threshold selected by country of citizenship. The sample was designed so that countries of citizenship associated with a small number of movements were fully sampled, while countries with a larger number of movements tended to have a higher threshold. This approach minimised the effect of sampling error associated with the available statistics. When the threshold was reached, the passenger card was selected and data extracted. For example, prior to April 2020, every 55th short-term Australian arrival card was selected and the data extracted and fully quality assured for that specific card, while every single passenger card for a traveller with Sierra Leone citizenship would be selected. From July 2007 to April 2020, about 5% of all short-term arrivals were selected for sample.

3. Some statistics relating to these movements are therefore estimates which are subject to sampling variability, that is, they may differ from statistics which would have been obtained if details of all these movements had been processed. The sampling error associated with any estimate can be estimated from the sample results and one measure so derived is the standard error. It would be impractical however, to publish estimates of standard errors for all figures from OAD statistics in individual tables.

1. This release contains traveller movement data which should not be interpreted as 'persons'. Overseas arrivals and departures statistics relate to all recorded movements of travellers who cross Australia's international border. The statistics record the number of movements of travellers rather than the number of travellers (i.e. multiple movements of an individual traveller during a given reference period are each counted separately). It includes the movements of all travellers regardless of their nationality, citizenship or legal status.

2. The statistics exclude the movements of operational air and ships' crew, of transit passengers who pass through Australia but are not cleared for entry (including some defence force personnel), and of passengers on pleasure cruises commencing and finishing in Australia. These statistics also exclude undocumented arrivals or departures.

3. From 1 July 2016, Norfolk Island was integrated into Australia for administrative purposes. Travel between Australia and Norfolk Island is no longer considered an international movement and is therefore not included in Overseas Arrivals and Departures statistics.

4. The focus of this release is information and analysis of short-term movements (i.e. less than one year), in particular short-term visitor arrivals (STVA) and short-term resident returns (STRR). Permanent and long-term movements in this publication are not an appropriate source of migration statistics. For further information refer to:

• Overseas Migration ;
• National, state and territory population .

5. These statistics are important as input to a broad range of other statistical collections, including:

• Australia's official population estimates, through estimates of Net Overseas Migration (NOM);
• the Australian Migration Planning Framework;
• key national economic and tourism indicators;
• forecasting NOM into the future;
• International Trade & Balance of Payments statistics;
• compiling the International Accounts and the Tourism Satellite Account;
• estimating National Income and Consumption; and
• creating benchmarks for the International Visitors Survey.

Seasonally adjusted and trend estimates

1. Trend estimates have been suspended from February 2020 and seasonally adjusted estimates have been suspended from April 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international travel. Please see 2020 under the History of changes section.

2. Seasonally adjusted estimates are derived by estimating and removing systematic calendar-related effects from the original series. In the short-term visitor arrival and short-term resident return series, these calendar-related effects include seasonal (e.g. increased travel in December due to the Christmas holiday period), moving holiday (e.g. increased travel in January in some years and February in others due to Lunar New Year celebrations) and trading day influences (arising from the varying length of each month, the composition of the days of the week in a month, and the varying levels of activity for different days of the week). Each influence is estimated by separate factors which, when combined, are referred to as the combined adjustment factors.

3. For March 2020, seasonal factors for both the short-term visitor arrival and short-term resident return series were calculated using data up to and including February 2020, then forecast for March 2020. This approach, known as the forward factor method, ensures that the seasonal factors are not distorted by COVID-19 impacts. The forward factor method of seasonal adjustment uses data up to a fixed point in time to estimate seasonal factors. These factors are then forecast to provide seasonal factors for the next 12 months. This process is repeated annually to calculate seasonal factors for the coming year. Seasonal factors for previous years are also revised at this point. This method has been used in the past, and was in use until June 2003 (as described below) when it was superseded by the Concurrent seasonal adjustment method.

4. From August 2019, the ABS improved the method for calculating trend estimates. It changed by removing the "ripple" effects, which tend to be more inherent in the previous trend series for smaller series and lower level estimates. The result of removing these "ripple" effects is trend estimates which are less volatile and less prone to revisions over time. An article prepared for the March 2018 issue of Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) explaining the new method can be accessed here: Improvements to Trend Estimation

5. From July 2007, the ABS improved the method of producing seasonally adjusted estimates, focusing on the application of ARIMA modelling techniques, which can improve the revision properties of the seasonally adjusted and trend estimates. For more information on the details of ARIMA modelling, see 'Feature article: Use of ARIMA modelling to reduce revisions' in the October 2004 issue of Australian Economic Indicators .

6. From November 2004, the ABS improved the method for removing trading day effects from seasonally adjusted estimates. Corrections for trading day effects are now applied as prior corrections to the original estimates, rather than being applied within the seasonal adjustment process. This is now consistent with the treatment of any corrections for large extremes, changes in level, changes in seasonal pattern, Easter, and other effects.

7. From July 2003, concurrent seasonal adjustment methodology was used to derive the combined adjustment factors. This means that data from the current month are used in estimating the combined adjustment factors for the current and previous months. Concurrent seasonal adjustment replaces the forward factor methodology used since seasonal adjustment of short-term visitor arrivals began in 1969 and short-term resident departures in 1976.

8. Concurrent adjustment can result in revisions each month to the seasonally adjusted estimates for earlier periods. However, in most instances, the only noticeable revisions will be to the combined adjustment factors for the current month, the previous month and the same month a year ago. Although there is no specific information paper on concurrent adjustment to short-term visitor arrivals or resident departures, more detail on the method in general can be found in the Information Paper: Introduction of Concurrent Seasonal Adjustment into the Retail Trade Series (cat. no. 8514.0).

9. An improved correction method has been implemented in the seasonal adjustment process to remove the effects of Lunar New Year, Ramadan, Diwali and Easter from the seasonally adjusted estimates:

• Lunar New Year - Lunar New Year often falls in February but on some occasions falls in January. The seasonally adjusted and trend estimates for January and February should account for the impact of the calendar-related effect associated with the movement of Lunar New Year between the boundary of January and February. The Lunar New Year proximity adjustment method takes into account the change in activity before, during and after the event, with the size and shape of this effect depending on the series. In some series, the proximity correction is only applied to part of the series, as it is not significant for the entire series. Further details on this adjustment method can be found in 'Estimating and removing the effects of Lunar New Year and Ramadan to improve the seasonal adjustment process' in Australian Economic Indicators (cat. no. 1350.0, November 2005 issue).
• Ramadan - Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and starts eleven days earlier each year in the Western calendar, so adjustments for this effect apply to different months over the years. The adjustment was made after the detection of a significant influence on travel for Malaysia, Indonesia and several North African and Middle Eastern countries associated with the start and/or end of the Islamic month of Ramadan. The estimates for Total South-East Asia and Total North Africa and the Middle East were also corrected as a consequence of these corrections. Other time series did not have a significant Ramadan effect and were not corrected.
• Diwali - Diwali marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year and is celebrated in autumn (northern hemisphere) or spring (southern hemisphere) every year. An adjustment was made after the detection of an influence on visitor arrivals from Singapore.
• Easter - Easter falls on the Sunday after the ecclesiastical Full Moon that falls on or after March 21. It is therefore observed between late March and late April. Adjustments were made to movements from a number of countries.  

10. Seasonal adjustment procedures do not aim to remove the irregular or non-seasonal influences which may be present in any particular month, such as the effect of major sporting and cultural events, changes in airfares and the fluctuation of the Australian dollar relative to other currencies. Irregular influences that are highly volatile can make it difficult to interpret the underlying movement of the series even after adjustment for seasonal variation. Trend estimates take these irregular influences into account.

11. Trend estimates for short-term overseas visitor arrivals and short-term Australian resident returns are derived by applying a 13-term Henderson weighted moving average to all months of the respective seasonally adjusted series (after correcting the series for large extremes or changes in level) except the ends. A different set of specially designed Henderson moving averages are applied to the initial and last six months where the 13-term version cannot be used due to a lack of data points. While this technique enables smoothed data for the latest period to be produced, it does result in revisions to the smoothed series, principally of recent months, as additional observations become available. There may also be revisions as a result of the re-estimation of the seasonal factors. For further information, see A Guide to Interpreting Time Series - Monitoring Trends (cat. no. 1349.0) and Time Series Analysis Frequently Asked Questions  (cat. no. 1346.0.55.002).

12. Under concurrent seasonal adjustment, the most recent seasonally adjusted and trend estimates are likely to be revised when estimates for subsequent months become available. The trend revision is a combined result of the revision of the seasonally adjusted estimates and the revision derived from the use of asymmetric moving averages as future data become available. ABS research shows that about 75% of the total revision to the trend estimate is due to the use of different asymmetric moving averages when the estimate for the next time period becomes available. To assess the reliability of the trend estimate, the 'what-if' charts present trend estimates under two different scenarios for the next time period. The charts show only the impact due to the changes of the asymmetric moving averages and do not include the unknown impact of revision to seasonal factor estimates that would arise when the estimate for the next time period becomes available.

13. Occasionally situations occur that necessitate breaks being applied to the trend series. These breaks are necessary because of a change in the underlying level of the series. While the breaks apply to an individual country (e.g. Pakistan), a consequence is that breaks are also applied to the regional total series (e.g. Total Southern Asia) and the Total series.

14. Trend breaks currently included in the STVA and STRR trend series are as follows:

• Fiji - June 2000: decrease in STVA movements - Coup in Fiji
• Indonesia - December 1997: decrease in STVA movements - Asian Financial Crisis
• Korea - December 1997 and January 1998: decrease in STVA movements - Asian Financial Crisis
• Other North Africa and the Middle East - September 2003: Increase in STVA movements - Gulf War
• Pakistan - April 2016: increase in STVA movements - suicide bombing attack on 27th March, major floods on 3rd April, and earthquake on 10th April
• Poland - November 2002: decrease in STVA movements
• Sweden - September 2008: decrease in STVA movements - Global Financial Crisis
• Thailand - August 1997: decrease in STVA movements - Asian Financial Crisis  
• Fiji - July 2009: increase in STRR movements - Additional flights available direct to Fiji from Melbourne and Adelaide
• Turkey - March 2016: decrease in STRR movements - Ankara suicide bombing attack
• Japan - April 2011: decrease in STRR movements - Fukushima earthquake  

15. For a detailed discussion and analysis of OAD time series estimates, see the ABS Demography Working Paper 2004/2 - Interpretation and Use of Overseas Arrivals and Departures Estimates (cat. no. 3106.0.55.002).

16. For information looking at the implications of unusual external events on ABS time series, see the ABS Feature Article: When It's not "Business-as-usual": Implications for ABS Time Series (cat. no. 1350.0 for Aug 2009).

Technical note - seasonally adjusted and trend estimates

1. Seasonally adjusted and trend estimates add to the understanding of overseas arrivals and departures (OAD) statistics. Seasonally adjusted estimates allow users to analyse short-term movements including irregular impacts on the series, while trend estimates provide a better method to analyse and monitor the underlying direction of the series. In most cases, the trend series is the best source of information on the long-term direction of these statistics.

2. The following graphs are provided to illustrate variations in the seasonally adjusted and trend series for selected countries. These graphs cover the period June 2009 to June 2019.

Overseas visitor arrivals - short-term trips

Selected source countries.

3. The graph for:

• France shows a major change of the seasonally adjusted series in April 2010 with a decrease in travel due to volcanic eruptions in Iceland, which closed major airports in Europe for one week
• Sri Lanka shows one in March 2015 due to increased travel to attend the ICC Cricket World Cup, in which a majority of Sri Lankan games were played in Australia
• New Zealand shows one in September 2011 with more New Zealanders staying home due to New Zealand hosting the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Australian resident returns - short-term trips

Selected destinations.

4. The graph for:

• Brazil shows major changes of the seasonally adjusted series due to increased travel by Australians in July 2014 and August 2016. These dates coincided with the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics (held in Rio de Janeiro), respectively. 
• Vanuatu shows one due to decreased travel by Australians in April 2015 after a series of disruptions of air travel due to severe tropical cyclones, most notably Cyclone Pam in March 2015. 

5. Sometimes there are abrupt and sustained changes in the underlying behaviour of short-term movement series termed ‘trend breaks.’ Given that these changes can distort trend estimates, the ABS takes such breaks into account when smoothing seasonally adjusted series.

6. The graph for:

• Japan shows a break in the trend series due to decreased travel by Australians from April 2011 after the major earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 and subsequent radiation exposure incidents.

Statistics and variables available

Abs products.

1. The ABS may have other relevant data available on request. Generally, a charge is made for providing this information. Inquiries should be made to the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.

2. The following variables for overseas arrivals and departures data are available on request:

• Category of movement (e.g. permanent arrival, short or long-term visitor arrival, short or long term resident return, short or long-term visitor departure, short or long term resident departure)
• Country of citizenship (nationality)
• Country of residence/stay - only available for arrivals (e.g. for a visitor arriving their country of residence, for resident returning their country of stay)
• Direction - arrival or departure
• Duration of stay (i.e. actual time spent in or away from Australia, for visitors arriving it is based on intended length of stay)
• Main reason for journey - only available for arrivals (not available for permanent arrivals)
• Mode of transport (air or sea)
• Port of clearance (i.e. the air or sea port where a traveller is cleared for international travel by the Australian Border Force)
• Reference day/date
• Reference month
• Reference year (available back to 1976)
• State or Territory of clearance (i.e. the state or territory where a traveller is cleared for international travel by the Australian Border Force)
• State or Territory of residence/stay (i.e. for a resident the state/ territory where they live or will live, for a visitor their state/ territory of stay)
• Visa applicant type - primary or secondary (available from July 2004)
• Visa subclass (available from July 2004)

Related external products

1. Related statistics are also published by:

• Department of Home Affairs, available on the department's website https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au.
• Tourism Research Australia, available on the department's website http://www.tra.gov.au/.
• Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications' website https://bitre.gov.au/statistics/index.aspx .