Short-Term Visitor Movements
THE number of overseas tourist arrivals in Australia appears to be levelling off, while departures continue to rise. Preliminary estimates suggest that the seasonally adjusted number of short-term visitor arrivals to Australia decreased by 200 (less than 0.1 per cent) to 422,600 between April and May. In the year to May 2004, visitor arrivals increased by 28.2 per cent, reflecting the very low levels of tourism activity in May 2003, at the time of the Iraqi war and SARS crisis.
Departure numbers are only available to April. They show that seasonally adjusted short-term visitor departures from Australia rose by 15,400 (4.4 per cent) to 363,900 between March and April. In the year to April 2004, visitor departures increased by 56.4 per cent.
Source: ABS Cat. 3401.0