Indians are the fastest growing short term visitors to Australia. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), when trend estimates for short-term visitor arrivals for December 2017 and December 2018 were compared, the highest percentage increases were recorded for India (13.3%), followed by Japan (12.4%) and Singapore (8.1%).
According to ABS data, the highest percentage decreases were recorded for the United Kingdom (-3.4%) and Germany (-2.4%).
In December 2018, 31,200 Indians visited Australia for on a short term basis. The highest visitors were from China (121,100) which has taken over from New Zealand (115,900).
The United States of America stands at number three (67,900) followed by UK (60,800), Japan (41,400) and Singapore (38,600).
In 2018, 9.2 million overseas residents arrived in Australia for a short-term stay. The most popular month was December (1.1 million short-term arrivals) and the least popular was May (609,450).
This is the first time that China (1.43 million) overtook New Zealand (1.39 million) to become the largest source of short-term visitor arrivals.
Over 357,000 Indians visited Australia for a short stay - 18.2 per cent higher than the previous year.
ABS Director of Migration Statistics, Myles Burleigh, said Australia is an increasingly popular destination for Chinese residents.
“We have seen extremely strong growth in visits from China in recent times. In 2008, there were 353,000 visitors from China, so the number has more than tripled in the last 10 years. Ten years before that, in 1998, there were only 77,000 visits by people from China".
The number of women visiting Australia in 2018 (4.8 million) was higher than men (4.4 million). This trend has changed since 2008 when more men (2.9 million compared to 2.7 million women) visited down under for short term.
Tourism Australia has been advertising aggressively in Indian markets in recent months.
Popular Bollywood actor Parineeti Chopra was appointed as a brand ambassador for Tourism Australia in 2017.
Many states and territories have also taken steps to attract more Indians tourists.
